Skype
Recently I was testing out Skype with a friend just to see if we could do video between our iMacs. I have used Skype off and on over the years and I must say the new versions of Skype have improved remarkedly. It is a much better app than in previous iterations. But, how does it compare with iChat?
My friend and I traded user names and were connected almost immediately. Then, we did a video connection. The video quality was surprisingly good. It was pretty grainy if you went to full screen, but that is pretty typical for a video chat. The audio was decent and was almost real time with very little time lag at all. Both my friend and I have broadband connections which, in my opinion, is an absolute necessity. We talked for about 5 minutes or so and then hung up.
How does Skype compare with iChat? Well, I think the video/audio quality is pretty close. But I would have to say iChat is a much more nicely laid out program which is what one would expect from Apple. I would prefer to use iChat if I am going to another Mac, just because of it’s sophistication. Also, iChat has screen sharing capabilities which work very nicely. Skype has screen sharing in beta at this time.
So, if I like iChat so much why bother with Skype? The answer comes in the form of two words: Pee Cees! If you want or need to talk to someone on a PC you need to use Skype. That seems to be the PC standard at this time. It is a very viable way to talk to a PC user. Some people say that Apple should have made a PC Windows iChat client just like Safari, but I am sure they have their reasons for not doing so.
So, if I need to do a video chat with a PC person I have Skype, but for the bulk of my SMS, video chatting I will be using iChat. Plus iChat has a few little goodies like iChat Theater, multiple person chats and so forth.
The Mac version of Skype seems very stable and is definitely very useable if you need. Don’t hesitate to download and install it. Oh, by the way, a Skype to Skype type connection is free. And, you can buy phone minutes for Skype and use it for phone calling over the Internet, a software VOIP application. It does possess it’s own veratility I guess. I use my MagicJack for VOIP type stuff and it works great. To each his own.
Doug
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This may not be a big issue for a lot of people, but when using an external FireWire camera, the Mac version of Skype has no setting to use the DV audio from the camera. IChat handles this feature just fine. As a result, I’ve been doing live shots on Tv with iChat rather than Skype due to the fact that we’re an almost exclusive mac shop. skype gets all the love in the broadcast realm, time for ichat to get a little, it’s a fine program and has saved us a lot of money when going live on KUJH-TV