Skype’s fanbase has always been a bit PC-heavy (hardly surprising, given that the entire computer-using world is a bit PC-heavy), but that may change today with the beta release of Skype for Mac with Video.

The new video calling feature, part of Skype for Mac 2.0 beta, lets you make free video calls to any other Skype users, whether they’re on PCs or Macs. You can view the video in your Skype window or full screen – and, if you both have a webcam, you can use the handy pic-in-pic feature shown above.

A little side window even lets you see how you look to your Skypee, which is a handy for checking that you haven’t got lunch stuck all over your chin.

“Our community is made up of both Mac and Windows users,” said Stefan Oberg, Skype’s product management director. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring these two groups together, literally face-to-face.”

Today also sees the full release of the voice-only Skype for Mac OS X 1.5, just two months after its beta release. Features include easier dialling, importing of contacts and the ability to show your status on the web or in your emails.

Users of the Skype Mac video service will need Mac OS X, version 10.3.9 Panther or later, a system with a G4, G5 or Intel processor running at a minimum of 800MHz, 512MB of RAM and 40MB of free disk space.