Skype 5 dials up Facebook integration

By Geoff Duncan October 14, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Leading VoIP service Skype has officially released Skype 5 for Windows, which makes the real-time chatting application more social than ever by integrating with Facebook. Skype users will be able to interact with Facebook friends and communities right within the Skype application, posting status updates and comments, liking items, and—of course—call and SMS their Facebook friends.

Skype 5 integrates a news feed of status messages from Facebook friends who are using Skype, and enables users to set their own Facebook status using a feature dubbed “mood messages.” The services rely on users linking their Facebook account to their Skype account; at that point, any friend who has made their phone number available on Facebook can be called directly from Skype.

In addition to new social features, Skype 5 also aims to further expose some long-standing but not-as-widely-used features of the service via a Skype Home tab, including screen sharing, SMS, file sharing, and more. A new search feature automatically shifts friends to the top of results listings, and Skype says the new version of the application offers improved call quality and is less likely to drop calls

Skype is also expanding its group video calling service, enabling support for up to 10 participants in a single video chat—although the group video calling feature is still in beta, and Skype envisions eventually charging for it separately as an add-on service. Skype has claimed that more than one third of the calls it currently handles are now video calls and anticipates video calls will eventually become the norm.

The Skype client application remains free, and Skype-to-Skype calling remains free; however, users must pay to connect to mobile phones and traditional landline phones, albeit at rates that are usually substantially lower than traditional phone carriers. Skype says a version of Skype 5 for Mac OS X should be available in a few months.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Facebook

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

The HP Victus gaming PC with RTX 3060 has a $550 discount

The HP Victus 15L gaming PC in white.

Gamers don't need to spend more than $1,000 if they want to buy a new gaming PC because there are affordable options like the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop. From its original price of $1,400, you can get it for just $850 as HP has applied a $550 discount on this machine. However, you shouldn't delay your purchase because there's no assurance that the gaming PC will still be 39% off tomorrow. If you want to make sure that you get it for less than $1,000, you're going to have to complete the transaction for it within the day.

Why you should buy the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop
You shouldn't expect the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop to match the performance of the top-of-the-line models of the best gaming PCs, but it's surprisingly powerful for its cost. Inside it are the 13th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, with 16GB of RAM that our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming. It's enough to play today's best PC games without any issues, and it may even be capable of running the upcoming PC games of the next few years if you're willing to dial down the settings for the more demanding titles.

Computing

This 17-inch HP laptop is on sale for just $300 — but hurry!

The HP 17t-cn300 17.3-inch laptop against a white background.

If you want to buy a laptop with a relatively large screen, the good news is that you don't have to break the bank with your purchase because you can get the HP Laptop 17t for a very affordable $300. It's on sale from HP with a $200 discount on its original price of $500, but there's no telling how much time is remaining before this offer expires. We don't think it will stay available for long because laptop deals like this almost always get sold out quickly, so complete the transaction as soon as possible to make sure that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the HP Laptop 17t
With the 17.3-inch display of the HP Laptop 17t, you'll have a lot of screen real estate to work on your projects and watch streaming shows. It's pretty affordable for a laptop with this large screen, which offers HD+ resolution for sharp details and vibrant colors. However, despite its big display, the HP Laptop 17t maintains portability because it's only 0.78 of an inch thick, which makes it easy to slide into your bag when you're on the go, and it won't be too heavy to carry around because it only weighs about 4.6 pounds.

Computing

What to do if your Intel CPU keeps crashing

Pins on Core i9-12900K.

Despite being among the best processors you can buy, some high-end Intel CPUs have faced a wave of instability over the past few months. Intel is investigating the problem, but the company and its motherboard partners have already worked toward some temporary fixes to improve stability on high-end Intel CPUs -- even if it comes at a performance cost.

Before getting into the fixes, keep in mind that they are temporary. Intel will release a statement on the instability soon, likely with more direct guidance on what affected users should do. In addition, the scope of the problem isn't clear -- if you're not experiencing issues, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Who's affected