Second Skype 4.0 Beta Shrinks Screen, Adds Notifications

Windows only (for now): When Skype rolled out its first beta 4.0 release back in June, its enhanced video chat and managed conversation features came at a cost: a screen-filling app which wasn’t necessarily helpful on ultra-portable devices and in which it was easy to lose notifications of chat messages. The newer beta, out this week, addresses those concerns by adding an optional ‘compact view’ that’s more akin to classic Skype, and incorporating pop-up notifications on the taskbar (which you can switch off, fortunately). Those changes aside, the 4.0 release is still a little buggy (my install required a reboot and didn’t accurately reflect available people to chat to). The current beta is still Windows only, but a Mac version is in the works.