by Adam Feneley

Created on: October 28, 2009   Last Updated: October 29, 2009

Skype on iPod Touch and iPhone

Rating: 9/10

For those of you that don't know what Skype is, you're missing out. Skype offers a free Internet service, but it makes money by charging users who call land lines or mobile phones from Skype. This service, which is significantly cheaper than rates charged by traditional carriers, means Skype has the potential to become a global telecommunications leader if more consumers start bypassing traditional cell carriers by installing Skype software on their smart-phones. The potential is there: Two weeks after Skype introduced a version of its software for the Apple iPhone, over 2 million copies were downloaded.

So how good is it?

Short answer: very.

I've had this app on my iPhone now for about 5 months and it is very useful, especially since i have friends on the 3 network which have skype running in the background and its great, i can call them for free whenever i want and no matter where i am on the globe or where they are.

The app has a very simple interface and since i already had a Skype account as soon as i installed it from the app store opened in, put in my address and password and that was it, i was up and running in about 5 seconds. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use, it supports free Skype - Skype calls aswell as a facility to buy credit to ring mobiles at very low cost (very good to ring family members abroad, a ten minute phone call to New York from here in London cost me about 60 pence, roughly $0.40) aswell as supporting the chat feature which acts like a IM or SMS service which you can send to other Skype users for free and to mobiles anywhere in the world for just a few cents.

The thing that impressed me most with this app was the audio quality, the phone reception through Skype is flawless, so far i have made calls to 3 different countries to mobiles and other Skype users and i have not heard a single blip of failed signal and the voice clarity is probably better than regular phone calls.

This is probably one of the best applications on the iPhone or iPod Touch, but as far it has one big flaw, it does not have a feature to run in the background since apple only allow their own applications to do so. This means that you cannot receive calls via Skype unless you are logged into the program and online, which is a bit annoying. On the upside i have heard that in updates this will be allowed and you can pick up phone calls off Skype whilst the program runs behind the scenes so you can use other features whilst it works away, although im not sure what its effect on the battery life will be...

Overall: 9/10

Very good, great interface, good use-ability, would greatly reccomend to anyone even if you have never tried Skype before its a great system, cant wait for the updates!

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