Skype 4.0 Beta - hands on review

The long awaited Skype 4.0 Beta is finally available for download and I've been putting it to the test. What I discovered were big changes, both in form and function. It hardly seems only five years ago that the first Skype Beta was launched upon an unexpecting public and took the online world by storm. From humble beginnings it has grown to a system with more than 300 million user accounts worldwide, 12 million of whom are online and connected at any given time. In October 2005 Skype was acquired by eBay, soon after which the first video telephony functionality was introduced. With the Skype 4.0 Beta that video functionality moves from the wings to firmly take a centre stage position.