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Skype group video calling becomes free

blogs.skype.com

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Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#51

Post by rikkus »

mcescalante wrote: post #50
_wmd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer Skype since although it has always been a huge CPU hog, its UI is perfect for beginners (i.e. family) and in the decade I've used it, I've never once been cross-sold some pointless feature the parent company are currently trying to promote. Note Hangouts itself once was Gtalk, which I was a user of, prior to the first cattle herding on to Google+. Now Gundotra is out the door, there is no telling into which…

For some reason, G+ hangouts eat a lot more CPU for me than Skype does.

Lack of GPU acceleration of Flash?

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#52

Post by theandrewbailey »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #9
gum_ina_package wrote: post #7

Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.

funny, because I don't know anyone who likes skype over G+

Everyone else in the podcasting network I'm on uses G+, but I like Skype because it's easier to record it with one computer.

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#53

Post by yawz »

Finally!

I've used many video conferencing solutions but I have the impression that Skype is going to be the most convenient (largely because we're already using Skype as a team). Sqwiggle[0] is pretty neat as well (Edit: I had to mention that, AFAIK Sqwiggle doesn't support group video conferencing).

[0] https://www.sqwiggle.com/

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#54

Post by why-el »

_wmd wrote: post #43
gum_ina_package wrote: post #7

Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.

I prefer Skype since although it has always been a huge CPU hog, its UI is perfect for beginners (i.e. family) and in the decade I've used it, I've never once been cross-sold some pointless feature the parent company are currently trying to promote. Note Hangouts itself once was Gtalk, which I was a user of, prior to the first cattle herding on to Google+. Now Gundotra is out the door, there is no telling into which…

Really good point on Skype being friendly to beginners. I never realized it but my parents get really uncomfortable when I try to walk them over how to set up Google Hangout, and most of the time the conversation just continues on Skype and we drop the experiment. I mean for them its a hassle to install all those plugins and then invite and open emails and confirm and whatnot.

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#56

Post by yen223 »

coherentpony wrote: post #40
yen223 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

G+'s video quality was miles ahead of Skype's. Heck, even FaceTime's video quality was better.

In my experience, FaceTime's quality has surpassed the others as of recent. Partly due to the new retina screen and HD iPhone camera.

I suspect it's some magical data compression technique, because my overseas video calls usually suffer from serious stuttering on Skype, but on Facetime it's smooth as silk.

Either that, or better bandwidth because less people use Facetime.

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#57

Post by perbu »

finkin1 wrote: post #37
gum_ina_package wrote: post #7

Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.

I'm the CEO of a small remote-working startup with 5 employees. I pay $20/mo for Skype since some of people I meet with only use that and I need the group screen sharing feature. Whenever I have a Skype meeting, I'm nervous, because 50% of the time video or screen sharing won't work. Once I get them to switch to Hangouts there's no problems, ever. Are you telling me that you experience the opposite? If so, that's ver…

We've been using hangouts more or less exclusively for at least a year. Hangouts are very stable. When doing training we have hangout sessions that last for two days (minus the nights of course). The problem with hangouts are with access control. Most people are not signed in with an ID that matches their email address and I still don't know how to schedule a hangout that is protected only by it's URL.

Re: Skype group video calling becomes free

#59

Post by yen223 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #47
yen223 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

G+'s video quality was miles ahead of Skype's. Heck, even FaceTime's video quality was better.

>> "Heck, even FaceTime's video quality was better." I've noticed this too. For a while I was on a really poor internet connection and on Skype calls video just didn't work. However FaceTime was practically flawless on the same connection.

Same experience here. Facetime had near-HD quality even when chatting with people overseas on an unstable 1Mbit line. I really want to know what magic Apple used.
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