Is the SILK codec which is Skype 4.0 for Windows included in Skype 2.8 Beta 2 (2.8.0.438) ?

@yusufg11 yes, it does

Is there an option to NOT have the dock open by default?

I usually only chat with one person at a time and to have the dock open every time a window opens is REALLY annoying. I tend to close the window and so whenever I get a new message the window has to reopen...and then the dock has to reopen.

If I could disable that it would be great. It seems really easy, and would be a huge improvement.

I should also mention that every single person I've ever shown the mac version of skype has also commented to me that the dock opening on every window is annoying.

I've been waiting for the option to just happen, but it's clear that it won't without me asking. Please don't make me beg!

@adventhorizon thanks for your feedback - I'll pass that on to the Skype for Mac team.

Peter,

Thank you for releasing another beta, and for including SILK in it.

A little more than 4 months ago, I asked:

"Could we have an option to hide the local video during a call (like in iChat or any other version of Skype that supports video calls, including Skype for Linux)?"

I guess we can't.

I also asked: "Would it be possible to make the video calls widescreen so that they fill the display when we switch to full screen mode?"

I guess it isn't.

Be nice to have all of the chat windows combined in a window like in windows version and still have an option to have it separate.

I am having a lot of consistency problems with Conference calls. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not conference the other call because it puts the first person on hold it sometimes does not add the new person. Also the conference call more then one person may call the last person you called not adding the new conferenced person???

When will the gold version come out so I can use it more, beta only seems to work well with Chat not conf calls?

Has the same issue, if your using skype for a bit of time with one person with voice you cannot add another person at times.

Thanks for the beta2.

I've been using SkypeOut more often lately, and noticed there is no REDIAL feature. Looks like I can find last number dialed via History (cmd+4), and then re-sort by date/time, and the rows are tiny, but it needn't be that difficult.

Just display last# dialed when clicking on CALL from the Skype dialpad (like iPhone); and 2nd click will dial it... (Add the Dialpad graphic at the bottom of list window is a good idea, btw.)

Thanks much.

@neil-hps-us take a look at these instructions for more information on how to set up conference calls - hope they're helpful.

As someone else mentioned, I also have not been able to find a place to log bugs or feedback for the beta, so will post here. I have just downloaded and installed x438, so don't know if the following problems occur on this build; all reported problems were with x324.

- Skype quit on launch all of sudden, and couldn't recover (re-install did not fix). Turned out to be an element in the Application Support>Skype folder (I assume a corrupt chat doc or something like that). I had never had a corruption problem in over a year of using Skype Mac, so thought this worth reporting.

- I use a MacBook Air, and often connect to Apple's ext. 24" LED display. If I wake up from Sleep with the display connect, Skype does not recognize that the ext. display is connected, and leaves the video option as "Built-in iSight." So if I forget to manually switch in prefs, I get a black screen and muffled audio (as Skype is using the internal camera and built-in mic). Instead, Skype should auto-switch in this case to the ext. display, and then reconnect to internal resources if the display is disconnected. This should be the case if the computer's top is closed (since the user is clearly not using the int. resources), but should not occur (in my opinion) if the ext. monitor is connected and the computer is "open."

- I agree with the other posters that we need a way to shut off picture-in-picture during video chat (as you can on the Windows Skype client).

@dlebolt thanks for the feedback - I’ll pass it on to our engineers.

can u tell me why u don't make mac version of skype look just like verison on windows???Version of skype on windows is perfect messenger....it's beautifull but on mac is bad...can u tell me that?

It still has a serious privacy/security issue, whereby it insists on remembering usernames even though Preferences->General-> "Remember my name and password on this computer" is unchecked.

@eatingorange949 thanks for flagging that - our engineers are aware of the bug, and I hope it'll be fixed in a future version.

I strongly disagree with Milan. Please *do* *not* make Mac Skype look like Windows Skype. Mac Skype is clear, well designed, easy-to-use. Windows Skype, like so many other Windows programs, is a flurry of buttons, tabs, inane add-ons, and unnecessary/confusing glitzy muck. I love how streamlined and sensible Mac Skype is. I can organize contacts intuitively, and actually see the call window. In fact, I ask for the reverse. I'd love to make my Windows Skype look like Mac Skype! Props to the Mac Skype team. Don't let the man twist your arm

Just downloaded it and STILL can't make phone calls. Anyone have a tech support chat line or (heaven forbid) a PHONE number for Skype??

I could not eliminate relays with 2.8. I have had to revert to 2.7 to get Relays=0. Anyone else had this problem?

@tinaanderson949 what happens when you try to make a call?

@john.salter very strange - could you get in touch with me on Skype and I'll put you in touch with one of our troubleshooters?

Hi Peter,

Good effort on this Beta version for Mac. Two bugs for attention, and a couple of comments:

Bug 1: Conference Calls - Like other participants commenting on the blog, the behavior when initiating a Conference Call is erratic (i.e. sometimes it starts, and other times a full hang followed by the "Unexpected Application Quit" dialog), but one behavior is consistently flawed: When selecting a combination of at least one Skype and one outside contact from the list, and then clicking on the "Start Call" button, Skype will freeze and crash every time. Fixing this one should not be considered a "nice-to-have", but elevated to a high severity bug for remediation.

Bug 2: Video/Audio Sync - Regardless of an 802.11.N wireless or 100mb wired connection on a home office cable broadband connection or on remote locations via a variety of network infrastructures: even with no other applications running, the Video/Audio sync degrades to the point of distraction. As a serious collaboration tool, this one needs care and feeding; audio, video, text messaging, screen and file sharing are useful in a single solution if they're seamless (read: They all need to just plain work). On my end, it's a 2GB/1.8GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Air on OSX 10.5.6.

Comments:
1. Like "godismercyful's" observation, I completely agree and strongly encourage you to keep your Mac solution streamlined, uncluttered and elegant. Fewer windows with more intuitive navigation via buttons and icons will keep you in alignment with the Mac user experience. I've been on the platform in every flavor of the OS since '84, and even worked at Infinite Loop in Cupertino for a time. A tabbed interface while communicating with multiple contacts (i.e. Adium) would be a truly welcomed direction for cleaning up the UI.
2. I've been on Skype's paid model for some time, traveling between the USA, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Keep focused and strive for a lightweight, stable, and reliable solution with elegance to the interface. Get the core functionality right first, (appliance-level quality, and multichannel video) add the bells & whistles later, and you'll continue to have loyal Mac (paid) users like me for a long time...
2a. Good first effort on the iPhone solution too. Keep it coming.

Thanks & best regards,
Marc

i finally had a chance to use the Boing minute-by-minute connection. Great. Just great. I didn't realize that connecting via skype would also make my internet and email work too. that's really useful.

Marc, thanks for your comprehensive feedback. Can you get in touch with me on Skype and I’ll put you in touch with one of our troubleshooters?

I downloaded this version of Skype yesterday and am finding I am having problems with connecting calls to landline and mobile. I've had 2 instances this morning where I made calls and I could hear them, but they were unable to hear me and I had to hang up and call again. Anyone else having this problem?

cheers
Tracy

Make that 3 instances. I'm still being charged for the calls though. Is frustrating.

cheers
Tracy

@tracyedgar64 sorry to hear you've had problems - make sure your microphone settings are correct. You can call our free sound test robot (echo123 on Skype) to make sure everything's working as it should be.

If the sound test works fine, then please let me know and I'll do some more investigating.

I really love skype, but there are a few things that still bother me about it. I'm on a Mac and here is a list of things I have noticed:

1. Cannot add people to a conference call who are not contacts on Skype...if you can, it's not obvious how to do it.
2. The red badge which displays the number of missed chat messages, voicemails, missed calls, etc does not update properly if a contact messages you more than once...it stays on "1"
3. Skype is not reliable when displaying who's online...it doesn't make this notification instantaneous like on Yahoo! IM
4. Skype also does not send messages right away. I can be in the middle of a chat with a friend and Skype will show the messages as "Pending"...very annoying!
5. The emoticons suck! I think they need to look at what Yahoo! has done with the emoticons, the chat relays, etc. yahoo is much faster and Skype can definitely use these 'under the hood' upgrades!

To me, these seem like small fixes that would greatly enhance the user experience and should be addressed in the "gold" release of Skype for Mac 2.8!

Thanks for listening!

@robert.true:

1. You need to add people to your contact list before you can add them to a conference - they don't necessarily need to have shared their details with you, though.
2. That's a design feature It shows the number of unread conversations, rather than the number of unread messages.
3. If you have problems here, they're likely to be firewall-related (either at your end or at the other party's end) - check out our firewall guide for more details.
4. Again, probably a firewall problem - but let me know if the advice above doesn't help.
5. I'll pass that on to our designers

As mentioned in the original 2.8 beta post, it's a gigantic pain that you can't disable the set status to away when mac screen saver activates feature.

I am regularly logged in from two computers at once (Mac and Windows) and any time I leave the mac computer alone for long enough to activate the screen saver my status gets set to away, even though I'm still working away on the windows computer.

We really need at least a way to disable this feature.

there needs to be a upgrade for macs to match the 4.0 version of windows

Hello Peter,

First of all, I'm very happy with Skype. I use it to contact (both text chat and audio/video chat) people on the other side of the globe. Skype makes this easy because there are versions for Mac, Windows and Linux and between my contacts and me we use all three versions. So the interoperability between the versions is an important thing. Thank you for that.

This is not the reason that I'm commenting on your blog however. I have a bug to report and I could not find a decent place to file it (and I've seen you react to some comments that you would relay the bug reports to developers so I'm sure it gets where it should be). So here it is:

Title: Skype Hogs CPU on Mac version with long chat history window open.

Description:
That Skype sometimes hogs CPU is reported before, but it's still present in the newest Beta (2.8.0.438) and I know how to reproduce it. There is no network traffic at the moment of measuring (maybe a few bytes per second, nothing more), so this isn't the case of a 'supernode'. Just open a chat window with someone you have chatted a long time with and select to view 'all' posts. When you do, Skype loads in the chat history and CPU will rise to nearly 100%. After loading in, CPU remains steady at about 55%. When scrolling through the history (still in the chat window) CPU rises to about 70%-90% and after I stop scrolling it drops back to about 55%. I tested this with maybe a couple of hundred lines. I tested this on a macbook (2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM) with OS X 10.5 (Leopard). I'm didn't test this, but I think previous Skype versions also suffer from this problem (at least the previous Beta does). I'm not sure if the amount of smileys matter (I've seen someone suggest that), but for the record, my test-case had smileys in about 50% of the lines.

Steps to reproduce:
Open Activity Monitor. Start Skype without any network (just to make sure it isn't a supernode related problem). Open a chat window with a person you have a long chat history with, select to view all messages and watch Skype hog the CPU.

Expected Behaviour:
No CPU Hogging (0%-5% for non-scrolling).

I hope this bug report gets where it is supposed to and if you could point me to the right place, I can post it there the next time I find something

I'm not sure I will follow this blog post, so if you want to contact me, you can send me an IM when I'm online, or send mail to my email-address set in my profile.

Thanks!

Ok, little appendum to my previous comment: to stop CPU hogging, just close the chat window and CPU usage drops.

That's all

@mjholtkamp thanks for a comprehensive report - I'll pass it on to the Mac team here

Hi,

Thanks for providing such a great piece of software and really a service to everyone. I just have one request or complaint - the constant status updates are annoying. There is a new event badge on my Skype icon for every little status change. I just want it to update me there about new calls or messages. It's just too busy when it's always telling me about my friends' status updates. Thanks a lot.

@lawrencefife you can turn the Mood Message chat off completely in Skype > Preferences > Advanced, or you can turn off notifications by right clicking on the chat in the drawer, choosing Chat Notification Settings and choosing Do not notify me and Mark unread messages as read immediately. Hope that helps

Hi Peter,

I use Skype for both voip and instant messaging, and I love the client. I have a few comments on the instant messaging capability:

1. Is it possible for future versions of Skype to have the option of changing online status "before" sign in. At the moment, of course, Skype initiates sign in immediately when the application is launched.

2. Offline messaging: right now, if I send a message to someone who is offline, that person will only receive my message "when we are both online". Will a future of Skype allow the person to receive my offline message regardless of if I'm online or not.

Thank you!

Peter, one more thing.

On this page, you will notice that everyone who has posted a comment to your blog has a "skype button" next to their username. If I click on anyone's skype button, I get a pop-up window that says "Skype buttons require that you have the latest version of Skype installed."

Is it possible that Skype buttons simply do not work with the latest beta version of Skype (ver. 2.8.0.438)?

@shard040 thanks for your suggestions - I'll pass these on to the Mac team.

The buttons work fine for me; I've contacted you separately on Skype to see if we can figure out what's going on.

Hi Peter,

I delved a little more into the buttons issue, and it looks like: they work fine in Safari 4 (public) beta, but not in Firefox 3.0.10 (using both on Leopard).

Looks like Firefox is not making the connection with Skype and doesn't know how to handle the "skype:" call-up.

@shard040 when I try in FF, I get a message asking me to pick an app to open skype: links with; once I've picked Skype, they seem to work fine. Check Firefox > Preferences > Applications to see if Skype's in the list.

Since installing Safari 4.0 yesterday, Skype 2.8 beta now runs at over 50% of my CPU, with the following in the console log (in all instances I've removed my Mac username for security):

Jun 10 11:36:10 Skype[35030]: NSOutlineView Warning: reloadData called while in the middle of doing a reloadData!

(this is repeated many thousands of times (until I kill Skype - 60,000 or more usually)

I also get this on first loading Skype:

Jun 10 11:35:26 Skype[35030]: : the delegate was sent -splitView:resizeSubviewsWithOldSize: and left the subview frames in an inconsistent state:
Jun 10 11:35:26 Skype[35030]: Split view bounds: {{0, 0}, {225, 475}}
Jun 10 11:35:26 Skype[35030]: Subview frame: {{0, 0}, {225, 0}}
Jun 10 11:35:26 Skype[35030]: Subview frame: {{0, 0}, {225, 484}}
Jun 10 11:35:26 Skype[35030]: The outer edges of the subview frames are supposed to line up with the split view's bounds' edges. NSSplitView is working around the problem, perhaps at the cost of more redrawing. (This message is only logged once per NSSplitView.)
Jun 10 11:35:28 Skype[35030]: Opening shmem segment /com.allocinit.CTCtrl
Jun 10 11:35:28 Skype[35030]: Opening shmem segment /com.allocinit.CTImg0
Jun 10 11:35:28 Skype[35030]: Opening shmem segment /com.allocinit.CTImg1
Jun 10 11:35:33 Skype[35030]: ERROR: MacChatMessage wrapper could not FindObjectByDbID by object DBID
Jun 10 11:35:33: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Jun 10 11:35:33 Skype[35030]: : An -observeValueForKeyPath:ofObject:change:context: message was received but not handled.\nKey path: isYellowInputAlertSet\nObserved object: >\nChange: {\n kind = 1;\n}\nContext: 0x0

Now it's clear that I'm trying to block chats from people like 'honest.girl', but this is generating all kinds of problems.

Any clues?

(I've noticed that not all of the wrapper appears in the post. Oh well...)

Thanks for the feedback - I'll pass it on.

Hi again Peter,

The only way I can get the buttons to open via Skype is to right-click on them and select "Save Link As..."

Otherwise, regular left click on the button yields the following:

http://img44.imageshack.us/i/skypebuttonpopup.png

Alternatively, if I right-click and go "Save Link As...", I'll get the following, which will launch Skype and allow me to view the user's:

http://img15.imageshack.us/i/savelinkas.png

So I "can" make it work in Firefox, though not as you describe.

I was wondering if more people don't see the 'badge' in the Skype logo in the dock. Whenever Skype is not focused and someone says something to me, it should display a red badge with the number of unread conversations.

Instead, whenever someone sends me a message (and Skype is unfocesed), I see the Skype dock item bounce (that works), but no red badge! So when I miss the bounce, I don't see if someone said something to me.

I'm running mac 2.8 beta 2, and I didn't have this problem with beta 1.

@shard040 I'm afraid the image links you provide don't work - definitely keen to see what happens though.

@mjholtkamp - do you see the badge at all? Or does it just fail to show for certain conversations? If the latter is the case, try right-clicking on the conversation in the drawer and choosing Chat Notification Settings.

It just doesn't work on Mac. Does anybody from Skype read these comments?

@peterparkes no badge at all, Chat Notification Settings in the drawer of the chat are set to "Notify me" (the top option). I have beta 1 and beta 2 installed on my system and beta 1 just works fine (beta 1 is installed as: Skype 2.8beta-oud.app, beta 1 is installed as Skype.app)

How can I uninstall SKYPE from my MAC? My husband wants me to get rid of it, but there is not way to unintstall it. Can someone please help me? We only want to use SKYPE on our PC not on our MAC. Please tell me how I can uninstall it from my MAC.

Hi Peter,

Here are the image links again, in the order I presented them above, with an additional image to show the result:
1. http://yfrog.com/46skypebuttonpopupp
2. http://yfrog.com/7hsavelinkasp
3. http://yfrog.com/7hprofilepopupp

@campbellmediations Yep, I read all comments posted on this blog - can you give me some more detail about what happens when you try to use Skype?

@mpeters0901 simply drag the Skype application icon to the trash

@mjholtkamp I've contacted you on Skype to get some more details

@shard040 thanks for that; very useful - I'll get back to you if we come up with a suitable solution

@peterparkes I saw a message, but I got them when you were offline, plus I got a notice each time I wrote you a message saying that I could not add you Anyway, I can be contacted by my email that i've set in my profile. Talk to you soon!

and can 2.8 or 2.9 please allow color texts, my friend said for the pc it allows it now.

shard040

After you do the "Save Link As..." etc., go to Firefox -> Preferences -> Applications -> Skype (and select as Action -> Use Skype), quit Firefox re-launch and it should work

Same issue is going on for me, regarding the Skype notification badge for chats. I hope this gets fixed with next (beta?) release. My windows using friends think that I'm rude for not answering them on time!

I'm getting the same problem as that user (@mjholtkamp) above, where I get no badge number for unread messages in my chats... It's incredibly annoying since it causes me to miss messages all the time (if I don't notice it bouncing or the growl notification).

Help...

The latest mac Skype 2.8 Beta 2 (2.8.0.438) has been dramatic success and improvement in call quality AND STABILITY. Thank You Skype mega team!! It won't be an exaggeration how Skype has changed LIVES of ppl working/living in remote locations or in foreign countries. Video, Screensharing, reliable chat AND FILETRANSFERS Wondering how far away is VIDEO CONFERENCE calling? Wish everybody a great summer and much Skype-joy.

@gd-jac

Your instructions work perfectly. But as you can understand, the average (Firefox) user will not know this.

Peter,

I don't know where else to post this, as Skype.com does not have a forum for users to post their comments and queries (hmm, now there's a suggestion). So I will hijack your blog post once more, please forgive me.

Skype Chatting observation:

I was chatting with a friend recently, when all of a sudden, I start receiving messages from a load of other people. Turns out these unknowns were his friends (I thought I was getting spammed). Skype said there was "2 chats" active. Did my friend inadvertently include me in a "multi-user chat", as I would expect to find in a messaging client such as MSN / Windows Messenger? It just wasn't immediately apparent to me that this was the case, so it did catch me by surprise.

Peter,

I did notice the Skype Credit feature recently at my local coffee shop. So yes, cool feature indeed.

@shard040 check your privacy settings (Skype > Preferences > Privacy) - you can block chats from people who aren't on your contact list.

Multi-party chats are identified by a little disclosure arrow in the chat drawer - you can click this arrow to see the members of the chat.

Hope that helps - and glad you like Skype Access

@levifig @apollo2x @mjholtkamp the Mac team are aware of this problem - thanks for your feedback.

hi Peter, thanks for all those improvments. may I suggest that a new version includes the possibility to sign in SIMULTANEOUSLY with two (ore more)pseudos ? quite useful when you are two people in front of one single mac ! bye !

@peterparkes getting in touch didn't seem to work, do you still need feedback?

Have some concerns about this beta. Why is it that I STILL cannot call myself back into a conference that I drop from, yet I am able to do this on a PC version of skype? Also, the chat icons look awful. Why was it changed to these dull flat icons? I hope those will be optional or dropped in the final version.

I really haven't had any issues with the beta. My question is why it hasn't been released as a stable version. It has been 13 months and counting since a stable release for mac. A year with no bug updates or improvements to call or video quality is way to long. I think the Mac Skype users need some love. This slow of updates to me doesn't show u want Mac users to have best experience they can.

Also haven't there been enough changes to justify a version jump up to 3.0?

I am not sure how to correct this problem, so any advice would be appreciated:

I can receive calls with no problem. However, when I make calls, I hear nothing but static and jarbled sound. I have downloaded the latest version of SKYPE and passed the echo sound test, but this problem still remains. Advice?

Brandon

@jovanbj1980 try our call quality guide for some suggestions – and please let me know if that doesn’t help.

* initially, attempting to use audio or screensharing call with new beta instantly crashed. After discovering that the beta worked on another Mac (that had never had Skype installed) I trashed the ~/Library/Application Support/Skype folder, and this fixed the crashing problem.

* share Full Screen (on either MacBook Pro or iMac built-in screen) sends garbage. Share Selection works (though limits the area that can be shared, because of the way that the feature has been designed). However, my MacBook Pro is connected to a secondary monitor - sharing full screen on this monitor does work.

* desperately needs the feature of showing where the mouse cursor is. Ideally as an option - but if it can only be one way, I'd prefer it was shown than not.

* is there a proper bug report/feature request system?

@cogappbenr yes, please head to our bugtracker

Please fix the CPU usage, it's still definitely too high (60-70% video calls)

I'm using Macbook 2,2GHZ and the high CPU usage makes the fan too noisy. My chat partner always hear that noisy sound so I've got to activate "surpress background noise" which makes the sound quality bad und dull

Wow . .

I am afraid to upgrade! Looks like I will be switching to a Skype alternative after reading all of the posts. Good thing I only signed a 3-month contract.

Bryan

Getting the same problem with no unread red blob on dock...very annoying missing msgs all the time. Any fixes around?

I have downloaded the updated version of Skype for my iMac but my video preferences are not available for my iSight. I tried to "disable" the video from iChat. Is there another solution? Also, do I use WiFi or does the system automatically pick up my cable internet?
Thanks

Hi i've just downloaded the new version for Mac & although everything is working fine the video call/cam isn't - i'm on a G5 with built in camera & can't see any options to check the cam or turn it on?
I know my cam is working but not when i'm using skype....

Please help!

Today I successfully downloaded the latest version of Skype for Mac. I cannot launch it for when I try to put it into my Applications folder, it says that I have 'insufficient privileges'.
Please advise how I can get round this and open Skype.

Just make Skype 4.1 available on the Mac. Moving from Windows to Mac is so frustrating that Skype uses a completely different interface that is crippled! There is basic functionality that is just not available like adding phones to a call.

Does any body how to stop the last chat window that i was on from opening every time i sign again. i compared the user settings with other users and i can not find what would be causing this !!!!!

Ragards
Denis

I find a nuisance not to be able to add people to a conference already ongoing. Not everybody makes it in time and I have to restart the whole thing to include the latecomer. Embarasing, specially when all the PC users can do it no problem.
Perhaps there is a - non obvious function in the Mac Skype that can accomplish this?
If so please be kind to write it here. Personally I will be grateful for this info
Nora

Just downloaded the latest Skype Beta for Mac. Every time I logon, popup asks me if I want to pay for wifi access with Skype credit. I dont!!!! How do I turn off the popup. Very annoying.

Hello

i was use skype for windows, my contacts have many phone number (office, mobile, particular, etc) right now i use skype for mac, but my contact just have one phone number (the first number in the list) my question is, i don´t view anymore the other phone number.

thank for your help.

holopezca