eWEEK Labs Tests Skype for iPhone

by Andrew Garcia

The Skype application will indicate unviewed chats or messages.

Skype for iPhone generally took less than 5 seconds to boot on my Gen 1 iPhone.

Skype prompts for credentials the first time you log in from the iPhone. The application will remember the login and password for future use.

Users can place Skype-to-Skype or SkypeOut calls from the iPhone application. I could dial direct, or use either the iPhone contact list or the Skype contact roster.

Unlike the Fring application for iPhone, which can place only Skype-to-Skype calls, Skype for iPhone also works with SkypeOut to the PSTN.

Although users can leverage Skype for presence, chat or profile editing over Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE, voice calls can be placed only when connected via Wi-Fi.

When viewing profile information, users can change the profile picture with an existing photo. They can also take a new photo with the iPhone camera.

Users can move or scale new photos via the touch-screen before saving the profile.

Users can easily alter presence status from the application.

It’s a snap to start a chat using Skype contacts. Previous chats are automatically archived for future reference.