Tuesday, December 4,2007 @ 5:55pm
Skype 2.7 beta brings Leopard, better video support
The internet telephony firm Skype released a new beta of its next generation VOIP software. First released in August, the new Skype 2.7 beta adds support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple latest operating system, and also brings better video resolution. The company said that video conversations are now set at 640 x 480 pixels by default and offer up to 25 frames per second. The free software offers the ability to make free Skype-to-Skype (worldwide) calls, make calls to ordinary phones and mobiles at low rates, video-conferencing with others, group chats of up to 100, and standard conference-calling with up to 10 people.
The software requires a Mac with G4/800MHz processor or faster and at least Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther. The higher resolution video requires a faster processor (Core 2 Duo) and a broadband connection with at least 384kpbs upload speeds. A microphone and speakers or headset is also required and users and download open-source drivers for various third-party webcams.
As devices continued to add Skype support, rumors last month surfaced that Google may be interested in acquiring Skype.