Skype 4.0 Released Today

I have been a long time user of Skype and was glad to learn that Skype 4.0 was released to day. With nearly 15 million users Skype has become an indispensable communication tool for both educators and professionals to connect with one another for free. I was just on Skype yesterday with John England from Mindsystems,who hails from Australia and had a great conversation about Mindsystems Amode, a new information management software application that is under development. The Skype connection was crystal clear and we spoke for about forty minutes for free- which is incredible. With Skype you are able to reach out and touch folks across the globe and interact and meet people that would not be otherwise possible. Whether you are doing a video conference call or Instant Messaging as I'm doing now with Henry Lewkowicz from Context Discovery you will find Skype to be and incredible tool.

I did learn today that Skype has released version 4 of their software with an emphasis on video conferencing, improvements in voice quality, and interface enhancements. Here are some more information that was gleamed from the Skype blog:

• Improved video calling – With the changes we’ve made, video calling in Skype 4.0 for Windows is the next best thing to being there. A new built-in bandwidth manager ensures that you have the very best video calling experience possible, even on a low bandwidth connection. If you have a fast enough connection (recommended 400 Kb/s or higher) and a high quality webcam, Skype delivers up to 30-frames-per-second High Quality Video at full screen.
• Calls and instant messages are easier to manage – video and voice calls, as well as instant messaging, are all easy to reach in a single window. The new Conversations tab makes it easy to hold multiple conversations at once, and to switch quickly between video and voice calls, instant messages and SMS. This is particularly beneficial for the power users among you.
• Call quality is substantially improved thanks to a number of under-the-hood changes. Calls sound richer and clearer than ever thanks to support for Super Wideband Audio with compatible hardware. The bandwidth manager should ensure that you have crystal clear calls even when bandwidth is low.

Enjoy and download the new version and try it out!