Skype 5 for Mac comes out of Beta

Skype for Mac is finally out of Beta today with a few fixes and improvements. Skype 5.0 “Gold” as the developers are calling it, features the ability to resize the user interface, allow full screen video calling and there’s an improvement in visibility of the dial pad and contacts. The sidebar now also shrinks as the window gets smaller when the content area is at its minimum size and Skype also now remembers the last position the user dragged it to. A full list of fixes and improvements can be found here.

Most users probably won’t immediately notice the improvements as they are generally very subtle. I think there are other more important things they could have improved on though. Having now used Skype 5 several times since its Beta release, I’ve got mixed feelings towards it. While things like group video chats have been improved, I’ve sometimes found it hard to get used to the new layout such as accessing contacts while in a video call and sending instant messages

I also don’t understand why developers such as Skype have to rename their releases as “Gold” like they’ve sold millions of albums or something! RealNetworks did the same thing with their free RealPlayer Gold. Skype Gold is also free but using the “Gold” tag may only cause confusion among users that it’s a premium service.