ReviewSaurus – Technology Rocks!

Well, most of the techies know about Skype. However, there is a big section which is new to the internet and still doesn’t know about this great software. Well, Skype is a Peer to peer internet telephoney network which was founded by Niklas Zennstorm and Janus Friis. And later Skype was acquired by Ebay Inc. With the help of skype users can make calls to other skype users for free and that too at a great voice quality and there are other services which lets you make calls to landlines and mobile phones at very cheap rates. Apart from that, it is a great messenger and full of features. Here comes the full review….

PROS of Skype :

1. Voice Clarity : Skype has got amazing voice clarity and with a decent internet connection (It works sweetly @ 128 KBPS too!), one can easily speak to other person and that too without any lag. And one can only explain the clarity of the voice, once they actually use it. The reason for so much clarity is that they’ve developed a Peer 2 peer technology which makes sure that even if the connection is slow, it will be able to provide better voice to the slow internet users.

2. Ease of use : Skype has got a great interface, which makes it quite simple to use. It has self explanatory features and even new users will not find it difficult to use. They have got good help resource and thus anyone finding it difficult, then they can easily refer to the help too. But, believe me you’ll hardly check the help section.

3. Various call features : Skype has got various call features and lets you make conference calls and even lets you receive calls as well, through SkypeIN service (however, it is a paid feature). The calls rates to normal landlines and mobile phones are way less than normal telephone rates and one can save loads and loads of money with help of Skype. Voice mail service allows it to become a direct alternative to the regular telephone.

4. Various Plugins : Skype is flexible enough and it allows third party developers to create plugins for skype and add additional functionalities in this wonderful program. This is certainly helpful as there are many developers around, who create plugins which Skype thought were of not very use.

5. Full of features, video functionality etc. : Skype has got all the features of a messenger and thus anyone can make use of not only the voice but the text option is also available. Video calls are also possible and configuration of webcam is quite simple. All the chats are encrypted, so from the security point of view as well, it is good.

6. Available for all OS : Skype is just not available for windows, it is available for Linux & Mac too. Apart from that various mobile based OS versions are available and thus it allows users to stay on skype, even if they are not using their computer and this flexibility allows users to stay with skype at almost all the times.

CONS of Skype :

1. Bandwidth usage : It’s positive feature is sometimes considered as its negative point too. Because it uses peer to peer technology, so every computer, which has skype running shares the bandwidth with other users around the world using Skype and thus it is sometimes considered as a negative point too. Due to this reason, many universities and other institutions don’t prefer to install skype over their network.

2. Flexible call rates : Skype is not offering flexible call rates and thus it is one of its negative. Like, there is one call plan, which lets you to make unlimited calls to any landline or mobile in U.S.A. , if you pay a certain fixed amount but this plan is only available for those users who stay in U.S.A. or Canada. So, any user staying in other country can’t get these kind of flexible call rates. I think skype should be fair to everyone.

Overall rating and view :

Skype is one of the best service available on the internet at this point of time. You can save lots and lots of money which you’ll waste or invest over the phone (depends on your usage..he he). I think I’ve got a very good fact which will prove my point and the fact is that 100 Million users can’t be wrong! So many features and yet extremely simple to use and that’s what makes it one perfect piece of software.

Links : Skype Homepage | Skype Download

Technorati : ReviewSaurus, Skype

Other Important Articles

• Is Joost going to be the future of TV?
• Call Graph lets you record your Skype calls!
• Review of Gizmo Project – Free phone for computer!
• Make SkypeOUT calls for Free!
• Indeed it will be cool if Google takes over skype!