Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design" • Hacker News Board

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#11

Post by jpcx01 » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:16 AM UTC

Flash video camera is a disaster, especially on Mac. After spending months working around its flaws, I've vowed never again to use Flash video recorder in my web apps again.

Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com).

And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#12

Post by cpg » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:22 AM UTC

pclark wrote: post #7

I have no idea what Skype was thinking with version 5 of their client. It is atrocious. There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong. Download version 2.8 - http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php

+1 for giving the link to the previous version.

It is in fact atrocious, for a mainstream piece of software. Many of us gave them feedback that the new client is WAY too generous with the space, at least for us with more than 5 contacts online. They did very little from the beta to the general release.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#13

Post by davej » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:25 AM UTC

jpcx01 wrote: post #11

Flash video camera is a disaster, especially on Mac. After spending months working around its flaws, I've vowed never again to use Flash video recorder in my web apps again. Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com). And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.

This may be so but how does it justify Skype blocking flash from using the camera?

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#14

Post by coffeejunk » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:25 AM UTC

skype for mac has always been a pain but it seems they're trying really hard to make it even worse. besides of course coverflow for profile pictures, which is a huge improvement in usability.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#15

Post by bad_user » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:35 AM UTC

jpcx01 wrote: post #11

Flash video camera is a disaster, especially on Mac. After spending months working around its flaws, I've vowed never again to use Flash video recorder in my web apps again. Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com). And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.

Have you reported these flaws? Have you documented them somewhere?

Flash video recording worked perfectly fine for me btw.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#16

Post by pmjordan » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:35 AM UTC

Interestingly, FaceTime and iChat don't seem to have any trouble using the webcam while Skype is running. Since they're Apple apps, they may get priority, however.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#17

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:38 AM UTC

lukeinth wrote: post #2

Thought I would pass on a word of warning about the recently released Skype 5 for Mac. Once installed, if Skype 5 is running (even in background), it will block Flash from being able to access your webcam. This breaks quite a few popular web applications. Unfortunately users will think the problem is caused by Flash, when it is actually caused by Skype. Examples of sites and applications broken by Skype 5. * http://w…

http://ww.com/ is also affected and we've already seen some support requests about this.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#18

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:42 AM UTC

jpcx01 wrote: post #11

Flash video camera is a disaster, especially on Mac. After spending months working around its flaws, I've vowed never again to use Flash video recorder in my web apps again. Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com). And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.

Actually, it works pretty good. But skype is interfering with it in a completely un-necessary way by blocking access to a resource even when it does not need that resource.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#19

Post by raquo » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 11:45 AM UTC

pclark wrote: post #7

I have no idea what Skype was thinking with version 5 of their client. It is atrocious. There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong. Download version 2.8 - http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php

Skype never made good client software for apple's devices, so it's not surprising. All versions have major UX flaws and iphone app is very buggy and slow/freezing for example.

Re: Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

#20

Post by ThomPete » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 12:00 PM UTC

pclark wrote: post #7

I have no idea what Skype was thinking with version 5 of their client. It is atrocious. There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong. Download version 2.8 - http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php

What they had in mind was the 90% of their users who only have 5 contacts in their contact list and the 95% of their users who only use the text area to write "Can I call you"

In other words Skype is designed for the 90% not us 10%