Latest Skype 3.8 promises better audio, MySpace integration

Emerging from beta yesterday, build 115 of version 3.8 of the latest edition of Internet voice messaging platform Skype promises to focus on the messaging platform's single biggest gripe in recent months: call quality.

"The main improvements can be found under the hood of the audio engine," Skype's Villu Arak wrote yesterday. "In the real world, this translates to significantly reduced background noise, less delay, fewer call drops, and fewer cut-outs."

Version 3.8 is the first noteworthy upgrade to the Skype PC platform since new CEO Josh Silverman assumed his post in March. This version had only been in beta for under four weeks, so its release just yesterday could signal a possible acceleration in the company's pace, as well as a refocusing on core interests rather than possibly frivolous extras such as "Skypecasts" -- a way of presenting one's own recordings to the world without all those messy pods, whose latest beta also appears in version 3.8.

In a prepared Q&A published by Skype last week, Silverman spelled out his company's change of focus, saying, "Besides keeping communication within the Skype cloud free, there are two things we need to deliver very well: incredible ease of use and world-class sound and video. Everything else wins us bonus points."

Among the feature additions in this latest version comes the ability to accept usernames from MySpace's built-in instant messaging, as Skype users, the result being that users can search for possible contacts by means of their MySpace profiles.

And in a sign of further independence from reliance upon Microsoft, the company is now using its own Universal Plug and Play implementation rather than Microsoft's. Previous versions had difficulty relying on Microsoft's drivers to identify PnP equipment, such as USB headphones or microphones, in the presence of certain firewall settings. Now, the company says it can actually remove the option to have Skype change a user's firewall settings automatically; in the absence of Microsoft's UPnP, it's no longer necessary.