Article: Skype 5.5 Beta Released for Mac

[Anthony Bouchard]

Another Skype beta is out today.

Skype 5.5 beta for Mac was released today to make the GUI (graphical user interface) and controls easier and more efficient. It also holds some key bug fixes to make the application run more efficiently and calls and performance have been optimized for the best speeds and sound quality that we can get right now. The GUI changes feature a more pleasant dark background with no surrounding disturbances or loose articles floating around your screen like previous versions of Skype.

Quality in calls made across the internet have also been improved so that you can hear voices better with less noise in the background and without problems occurring that might cause you to want to hang up and try calling again in the hopes of refreshing your signal. You should notice that you will lose connection much less frequently than before thanks to some improvements in the stability of the Skype network.

Another fix that was improved on was the problem that would cause the numeric dial pad to randomly pop up under certain circumstances. If you are receiving an incoming video call, you will now be able to accept the incoming video call with or without your video. It will also be much easier to mute a call, send files to your friends, or share the screen with your friends. The beta update is again, only for Mac users.

After trying it myself, the call quality was extremely clear even as I drifted away from my Wi-Fi hotspot down to one bar of signal. The GUI changes, to me, are pretty helpful because they're located in a more convenient manner than they were in the previous version of Skype. I also love the single window interface instead of having all of the loose windows floating around my screen on top of other things.

You can download the new Skype 5.5 beta if you're a Mac user from this link.

Sources: Macstories

[cockyjeremy]

Looks pretty much the same to me. Still too big, too ugly. I'll keep not using Skype until it's fixed.

[Stray]

Looks like the windows version..... ugly

[LuisHappy]

Now All They Need To Is Make Skype Better For iOS For Go Back To Recent Versions With The Old Look Because That Worked Beet

[dennder]

Jabber alongside with jingle looks more and more appealing...

This "new" Skype chews 13% of my CPU in IDLE (meaning hidden, with no conversations ongoing), and i have Core2Duo...