Skype with video on Mac OS X
by Volker Weber
Finally! With and without video.
Comments
Now I have to look, do they have the same for PC and the U3 installer?
This coincides with me getting hold of a little Logitech camera from a Windows-bound friend (have not really played with such technology since forsaking my SGI Indy some years back).
Sadly, going to video preferences always crashes Skype within about 5 seconds, so it is clearly not going to play (my 'pooter is way below the recommended spec at 450mhz G3, albeit with 1Gig RAM), even though the 'macam' application from the Sourceforge people doesn't seem to mind the low spec and runs the camera quite nicely.
Interestingly iChat is much more straightforward about it - it just states 'this computer does not support video conferencing'! But I'll be interested to see the next version....
Nick, the machine is just too slow. Skype Video is hardly bearable on a G4 at 800 MHz.
As stated on the skype site: It IS still BETA and one of the problems is the huge workload the video places on the system. My ressource usage goes to 100% immediately and even on a PB 1,5GHz, 2GB RAM it is not really smooth.
I think it is a first step and it leaves room for improvement.
I like your new glasses, much less...um...German than the last pair in the B&W picture on the right.
Amazing how you managed the exact same head tilt, smile and pose.
Ben, it's not that Volker "managed the exact same head tilt, smile and pose". It's just that he always looks this friendly :-)
You are looking as if you still can't believe it. What I cannot believe or rather understand is why skype has so much problems releasing the same version for Mac (as UB), Linux and Windows. It's ridiculous that Windows is stable at 2.5.0.126 (since July, the 12th), Linux at 1.2.0.18 (since October, the 25th) and Mac at 1.4.0.49 (since May, the 11th). Are they really developing three "independent", totally different programs? That would be kind of stupid, wouldn't it?
@Martin - Only as stupid as inventing yet another closed, proprietary IM system and then claiming that everyone who downloads it is a phone customer.
Why people use it is beyond me, unless they like all their clients to think they're calling from the bathroom given all the echo on the calls.
Even MS allow 3rd party IM clients to connect to their network!
Martin, cross-platform development is actually very hard. It is often easier to develop separate clients. I mean, you could start with a 200 megabyte Eclipse client, but that is not what Skype wants to do.
Ben, we know your stick. You may retire. :-)
"you could start with a 200 megabyte Eclipse client, but that is not what Skype wants to do"
And there was me looking forward to the zip file download :-D
(stick in cupboard)
C'mon, Volker, the Sametime Client was only about 50 (?) megabyte ;-)
But to be serious I think today it shouldn't be about space - there's more than enough. With broadband I don't care about downloading 25 or 50 or even 100 megabyte and my 80 gig disk doesn't care either.
I only see every day that it is possible to develop cross-platform and as cross-platform user I expect to get my tools cross-platform as well.
Martin, have you ever written a program, that runs on more than one platform? If so, what did it do?
It's just that he always looks this friendly :-)
Yes, vowe is a good mother. But you wouldn't want to cross him... ;o)
It said "Hello World!" ;-)
But it's not about me writing a cross-platform program. I'm not a programmer. I see myself in the position of a customer. Therefore it's about that it's possible and made every day. I'm using for example Azureus and Firefox, was playing Unreal Tournament on Windows and Linux and could have played WoW on Mac as well. Eclipse and VLC are two further examples.
I know that it's not just writing one code and using it everywhere, but I cannot see why releasing three kind of totally different versions instead of using one of the common cross-platform developing approaches.
Just played a little with the Beta on my Mac Mini Core Duo - CPU is at 50% while only testing the video. I wonder how high it will go having a voice call at the same time.
Markus
