I was out of pocket in Peru. Sorry. (More on that later.) Meanwhile, I am playing catch-up with news about Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows. And it is big news. Mike Bartlett, director of Windows Product Management at Skype, provides the big picture at the main Skype blog. He says video calling is now ready for prime time. He notes that Skype is "no longer just a little piece of software for making free calls. Our video calling experience, now enjoyed on over a quarter of all Skype-to-Skype calls, is starting to take centerstage alongside other great features such as instant messaging, group conversations, SMS & voicemail." The new beta version, among other things, delivers large screen display from a single click on the Video call button and help in tracking multiple windows from multiple conversations. Check out the main blog. Download the beta .