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"

#41

Post by Maxious » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 1:42 PM UTC

pmjordan wrote: post #27

danpker wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I think Skype only interferes with Flash apps, non flash apps that use the camera are unaffected.

This to me implies that both Skype and Flash are doing something wrong.

Reminds me of the recent conflict between the IcedTea (Java) and Moonlight (Silverlight) plugins in Chrome/Firefox http://neugierig.org/software/chromium/notes/2011/01/plugin-...

Is there an equivalent to Video for Windows/GStreamer on OSX?

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

#42

Post by jcromartie » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 1:42 PM UTC

haribilalic wrote: post #36

moe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over here skype is the #1 business messenger. Text-chat dominates voice and video by far, and most users have dozens or even hundreds of contacts ("everyone else in the company"). It seems unlikely to me that all these companies amount to only 10% of overall skype usage.

Where is here? The most common business messenger in my experience has been Office Communicator. It's everywhere that Exchange and Outlook are.

It seems to be really popular in Europe. Virtually every single European company I've worked with has communicated over Skype.

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

#43

Post by e40 » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 1:51 PM UTC

As a side note: the new Android Skype release is getting panned on the market because of horrible UI features (puts an icon in the notification area that cannot be removed) and other bugs. I finally removed skype from my droid, even though I do occasionally get calls from it.

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

#44

Post by riffic » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:03 PM UTC

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1759181

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

#45

Post by moe » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:17 PM UTC

haribilalic wrote: post #36

moe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over here skype is the #1 business messenger. Text-chat dominates voice and video by far, and most users have dozens or even hundreds of contacts ("everyone else in the company"). It seems unlikely to me that all these companies amount to only 10% of overall skype usage.

Where is here? The most common business messenger in my experience has been Office Communicator. It's everywhere that Exchange and Outlook are.

Where is here?

Europe. "Do you have skype?" is mostly a rhetoric question around here when asked in a business context.

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

#46

Post by redthrowaway » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:19 PM UTC

"To ſay it is ‘by deſign’ is not an acceptable anſwer. Your proprietary, inflexible, ſecret piece of ſoftware takes control of ðe uſer’s hardware wiþout his conſent, and ¿you do not even offer a reaſon for ðat?"

I'm trying really hard to figure out what localization this guy's keyboard is set to.

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

#47

Post by lukeinth » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:25 PM UTC

Just an update to say Skype have responded saying they will fix the bug in an upcoming release. Hopefully we won't have to wait long.

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

#48

Post by timerickson » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:30 PM 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…

To be fair, Beom Soo Park just posted a follow-up comment correcting his mistake in not calling it a bug.

"I have to rectify the term I used before, this issue found to be a "bug", not "by design", We are working on the issue and will be fixed in future updates. Sorry for making confusions.

Thank you"

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

#49

Post by DougBTX » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:45 PM UTC

adaml_623 wrote: post #37

Does this mean that Skype can take snapshots through your web cam whenever it's running? There was a US high school that installed software that did that and got raked over the coals for it.

Almost any running application on your computer can use your web cam and your microphones. The only question is whether they do.

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

#50

Post by khalidmbajwa » Mon, Jan 31, 2011, 2:51 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

More so than the whitespace, the multi-window approach is a pain in the ass. It gets worse when you are calling someone. Goodluck managing even the most trivial things such as finding where your video window went(oh there it was, hiding behind the text window, the contact list and the a dozen others).Seriously, it's gotten to a point where this thing is plain usable. This thing with the camera is just latest in a string of mis-steps by Skype. If it is indeed by design, the attempt to sabotage rival platforms and tools is reflective of a very dangerous mentality. Sad !