![]() ![]() You probably heard already, but it bears repeating: Skype for iPhone only works on a WiFi network, and displays a denial about "restrictions that may be placed on your data plan" when a call is attempted on a cellular network. In a nutshell, Skype for iPhone's call quality is quite wonderful-most of the time. You can change just about any of your information, including name, birthday, location, homepage, and About Me, all with nary a computer in sight. The Profile tab is another one of those appreciated areas where Skype built in as much control over one's profile as possible. Skype's final functionality hub is My Info, offering quick access to bare essentials like your online status, mood, an Edit Profile tab, and basic account info like your remaining Skype Credit, Online Number status, and Voicemail. This request goes ditto for Apple's own Phone app. I don't make a lot of calls, but it sometimes helps to be able to separate out a bunch of 800, 773, and 312 phone numbers by which direction they are flowing. Skype could have broken free of its Apple mimicry here, however, by adding second or even third filters for incoming and outgoing activity. The History panel does (most of) what it should, offering a record of all activity and missed calls. An Address Book button in the lower left here provides access to the iPhone's catalog of contacts, complete with Groups filtering and search. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke"-but in fact it was broken before Apple designed a decent touch-based phone dialing UI, so it's nice to see Skype not attempting to redesign the modern wheel. Skype's Call panel intelligently mimics the iPhone's big button layout. As it stands now, Skype (and any chat app like it) is only one or two steps away from Mobile Mail's grueling UI that requires too many taps to switch between mailboxes. iPhone-like dots line the bottom of AIM's chat window, one for each conversation, and you simply swipe left and right to move between chats. I don't think anyone would have blamed Skype for ripping off AIM for iPhone's design here by implementing its great swipe-to-switch UI. Right now, you have to tap out to the Chats list, then tap into another chat to switch conversations. ![]() Switching between text chats could be easier. A gear menu also allows you to delete or outright block the contact, revealing a high level of control over one's account that fortunately persists through other aspects of the app. Tapping into a contact shows a barebones profile page that features the user's name, Skype name, icon, status, mobile number, access to his or her full profile, and buttons for either calling or chatting. A search field allows power users to quickly pick a needle out the haystack that is their buddy list. A plus button allows for adding new contacts by searching the Skype directory, directly typing a phone number, or importing from your iPhone's contact directory. ![]() The first displays an alphabetized list of your contacts, complete with the handy right-hand letter list that makes scrolling easy and an All/Online toggle at the top for filtering out offline users. Moving along: five buttons at the bottom of Skype for iPhone expose much of its functionality: Contacts, Chats, Call, History, and My Info. ![]() Some fixes are in place, including updating to a new mobile substrate with Cydia and disabling Clippy and custom keyboard "tick" sounds. According to iPhone news site BigBoss, a couple of jailbroken apps and customizations are conflicting with Skype, causing it to crash either when typing text or after about a minute of using the app. To get an unfortunate unpleasantry out of the way early, jailbreakers should be warned about Skype's tendency to crash on their phones. From the splash page to the text chat theme, Skype for iPhone really does look and feel like Skype, at least, as much as it can when stuffed into the iPhone's 480 x 360 display. Skype's iPhone app exhibits the company's trademark bubbly aesthetic. On users' wish lists since the day Jobs previewed the original iPhone at Macworld Expo '07, Skype for iPhone delivers almost all of the company's features and functionality, save for just a few caveats. Another long-standing iPhone request was answered yesterday with Skype's official release of its iPhone app. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |