Okay Geek Farm
Skype Video Chat Released and Facetime is Left in the Dark
Connor Scalleat
After all the talk, the announcement and release has finally come; Skype has launched mobile video calls for free over Wi-Fi… and 3G. Yeah, they’ve even outdone Facetime. The new update now allows you to make a Skype call to another iOS device or to the Skype client on any operating system.
Skype has been the company people instantly think of when they hear the word video-chat for awhile now. Here at T3ch H3lp we love Skype, and use it nearly everyday to conduct all our meetings and interviews. When Facetime was released we knew that Skype had to get into this mobile game, and here they are. They have increased the competition for Apple’s Facetime by allowing calls over 3G and Wi-Fi, along with a lot more features.
At this moment, the app doesn’t support group chats yet but on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th Generation you can do two way chats. Both devices support front and back facing cameras, and what’s even more interesting to note is that Skype hasn’t forgotten about 3GS users. Those who haven’t jumped on the iPhone 4 upgrade can use their back facing camera as well as receive video. And iPad users can receive video, but I am sure that when the new iPad 2G (and its rumored rear-facing camera) launches Skype will be ready to support it. Though, the one downfall of Skype running on the iPad is that it’s a iPad native app, so you have to look at a blown up iPhone version.
Personally I haven’t had the chance to try out the application over a 3G connection but many reports say it plays very smoothly — A follow-up review will becoming later tomorrow with my experiences. The latest data tests report that video chat uses around 3.4MB of data per minute so people without unlimited data should definitely keep an eye on how much data they consume with Skype.
Android users aren’t so lucky however, and haven’t received any updates in awhile. Personally, I think you can clearly see Skype rolling with Apple over Android and Windows as we can see in the Skype 5.0 update which is mind blowing.
Don’t forget to join Skype on New Years Eve!
