The busy beta bees currently testing Skype 2.6 have been rewarded with a couple of improvements – all the better to perfect the software before its full public launch.

Among the tweaks is a brand new bandwidth indicator. Once you've enabled it using your advanced options, a small icon on your Skype status bar will show your upload/download bandwidths. Hover your mouse over it, and it'll show you how much bandwidth has been used.

One or two potential irritants have also been given the chop. For example, a pop-up window containing Skypecasts controls has been ditched; instead, you'll see the controls in your main Skype window whenever you're logged into a Skypecast.

Find a full list of all the changes in the change log, and use the links here to leave feedback for Skype's developers.