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Can you tell that I really like the saying that I used for the title of this blog entry? More importantly, and more sadly, Skype manages to prove how accurate and appropriate that saying is with every new release, and 3.6.0.248, which was released Tuesday, or Wednesday, or today, depending in when you got "lucky" with the download and got the new version, is no exception.

As I have been writing the reviews of the various Video IM programs in this blog, each time I have included a statement something like "download and install was smooth and easy". In fact, I had been thinking of dropping that statement, because it was always the same. But, as I have mentioned in the two previous entries about Skype, they have proven that I need to keep it. Download of this release of Skype was anything but smooth, it was a nightmare.

Installation is, unfortunately, still the same as with previous Skype releases. That means there are some very important options lurking on a second page of the installation screen, under the "Options" button, which is easily and often overlooked. This screen contains the choices to install the Skype Extras Manager (a very large and unruly process that has nothing to do with basic Skype operation and text/audio/video chats, but is installed by default), to install the Skype Plugin for Internet Explorer (which searches every web page you visit for anything that looks remotely like a phone number, and turns it into a clickable button, in the process often making the number partially unreadable, and all too frequently driving IE insane and making it unusable), and to install the Skype Plugin for Firefox (which does the same as for IE, but at least doesn't have such a reputation for causing mayhem). The best advice I can give is, if you don't know what these options are, and you don't know for absolute certain that you need them, then turn them ALL off, they are miles more trouble than they are worth.

In particular, in the "Options" window of the installation process, be sure to UN-check the "start Skype after installation" box, because you do NOT want it to run before you have the opportunity to disable the "stealth ActiveX" it installs, without your permission, and despite the fact that you have already told it not to install plugins. Once the installation is complete, and before running Skype for the first time, start Internet Explorer (yes, even if you use Firefox and not IE, you need to do this), go to Tools / Manage Add-ons / Enable or Disable Add-ons, and from the drop-down "Show: " list, select "Add-ons that run without requiring permission". In that list, select the "Skype Detection Object", and click "Disable", then "OK". Once again, this ActiveX control, which was installed without your permission, has absolutely nothing to do with the normal operation of Skype for text/audio/video chats; Skype has never been willing to admit what it does, but given their track record of program quality and bugs, I certainly don't want anything they produce installed and running without my permission or explanation.

Once the new release is installed, it does in fact identify itself as 3.6.0.248, so it looks like they might have finally gotten the download problems straightened out. There are no obvious changes in the appearance or user interface. The new version picked up all of my contacts, and mainained all of my choices in the View and Tabs, and program Options.

Unfortunately, the new release appears to have carried forward a lot of the bugs from the previous release. The first that jumped right out at me was their atrocious "presence reporting"; I've had the new release running on my test system for a couple of hours now (I refuse to even allow Skype to be installed on my main system any more), it is still reporting that ALL of my contacts are offline. I know that is untrue, because I have spoken with some of them. When I finally started Skype on another old laptop that I have here, and logged in another account, the two of them noticed each other (which is in itself rather an accomplishment for Skype), and in the process it was apparently enough of a "nudge" to get the Skype on my test system to suddenly realize several others of my contacts were actually online. As has been said before, and not only by me, an IM system without accurate presence reporting is worse than useless.

I have not been able to do much more testing (to be honest, I'm not all that interested anyway, finding and reporting the same problems over and over again, from one version to the next, gets old after a while). I have been able to confirm that the problem between Skype and the Logitech QuickCam application software still exists. The most common symptom of this problem is apparently random changes in audio device selection or volume when you make a Skype call. The simplest way to avoid the problem is to go to Skype / Tools / Options / Advanced / Manage Other Programs' Access to Skype, and if you see "Communication Helper.exe" there, select and change it to deny access. This is, unfortunately, not a 100% certain fix for this problem; if it persists after making this change, the only other solution is to uninstall the Logitech QuickCam application.

My recommendation for Skype remains the same. If you are not already using it, avoid it like the plague. Any of the other Video IM programs I have mentioned previously will peform much more reliably than Skype, and cause much less grief for both you and your computer. If you absolutely have to use it, because of their very large installed base, at least be very careful and very suspicious. If strange things start happening to your computer or other applications, such as system crashes, audio problems, Internet Explorer crashing, hanging, or repeatedly opening the same page, immediately suspect Skype as the culprit, and uninstall it to see if the problem goes away.

Last, but not least, I strongly recommend that you do not entrust them with any of your money by subscribing to any of their paid services - unless, of course, you think having your account blocked for no apparent reason, or having your incoming Skype phone number canceled with practically no notice, sound like a fun way to spend your money.

jw 7/2/2008

The first thing people told us about our recent Homebrew Challenge was that it was great to hear from other enthusiasts about their home tech projects. The second thing was that they really appreciated being able to pick up tips, especially money-saving ones, what with the cost of components and all. At ZDNet Towers, we are good listeners. So we're putting up £100 to grease the wheels of domestic techery.

It's all centred on the Homebrew Blog. Over the course of February, we'll follow the entries posted there, and the comments on them. The group blog, for those who haven't been there yet, is the place to show off their home-built tech projects. If your contribution catches our eye, and if you're a UK resident, you'll get a £100 gift voucher for the online component seller of your choice.

It isn't just a question of volume--you might just put up one post and win, if it's a cracker. There are all sorts of ways to go about it, what with video, photos, and making nifty suggestions via comments.

And if you're reading the group blog and want to argue for a member to win, just post a comment. We are, as ever, keen to get your feedback. So if you think this giveaway is a good idea, and if you think we should make it a monthly event, let us know that too. We're listening.

I've now had a day to examine, test, tinker and generally get to know the new ooVoo beta release. I have to say honestly, the more I look at it, the more impressed I am. The combination of the magnitude of the changes and the quality and stability of the new release is really unusual. I have tried to go through carefully and note what is new, or changed, and highlight the most interesting parts.

First, I have tested this new release with my brother in Atlanta. His conditions are quite marginal - he has a relatively old laptop (in fact, ooVoo was continuously showing him a warning that his CPU was "weak", which he seemed to take personally...), and only a Wireless-B connection. When we have tried the other Video IM programs, we have had all sorts of problems with both audio and video quality - pixellation, smearing, choppiness, drop-out, the whole works. We had finally decided that the best thing to do was stick to audio-only calls with Gizmo. I was very pleasantly surprised when we tried this new ooVoo release! Video quality is good, and while he reported that the audio on his end sometimes got a bit distorted, we never had any significant problems communicating. Then I got brave, and added another laptop to the video conversation - and it came up just fine! Video was good, and our two-way audio was still just fine. Of course, I had to mute the audio on the second laptop to prevent feedback. I was so pleased and impressed with that, I sort of lost my head - and added the THIRD laptop that I have on my desk right now to the video call. Four-way video connection, and they were all displayed just fine!! There was some noticeable lag in the video coming from the AMD system, but even that was only a fraction of a second. My goodness, what a change from the previous release, when I tested a 3-way video call and the delay was so bad that I was able to get up, walk to the next office, and then watch myself walk out of my office!

I have also just tested it with my friend Grant in the U.K., and the results were very much the same. We got the best, most consistent video and audio that we have had so far. Grant seems to have a fairly critical eye (and ear), and when we have been testing SightSpeed and Gizmo together, he has commented that my voice sounded "harsh", or the video was smearing or pixellating. He said that with this version of ooVoo the audio was consistently good, and very clear, and the video was excellent.

One major new feature that I overlooked yesterday is the ability to add phone participants to video conference calls. Since we had so much success with multi-party video calling, I decided to give this a try as well. I went to "invite", clicked "phone", dialed his office number, and it rang! When he answered, we had a third participant in the call, with a small telephone symbol and the phone number at the bottom of the video window. Now, in my opinion ooVoo has always been the leader in video conference calling, with up to 6-way video calls possible. Being able to add phone participants to conference calls is a great idea. However, I'm still withholding judgment on this new feature for two reasons: first, at the present time you can only call numbers in the U.S. and Canada; second, they are currently offering up to 120 minutes of free calls from now until 1 March, but I haven't yet found anything that says how much calls are going to cost after that date. If they get the dial-out service working to "the rest of the world", and the rates are reasonable, this could be a really spectacular feature.

Another new feature in this release is the ability to record video calls. Once again, this is a really nice addition. It's simple to use (just click the new "record" button at the top of the video call window), it seems to work well (I haven't had any problem with it so far), and the recorded file saved on disk can be played back by ooVoo, through a button that has been added to the main ooVoo window, or with RealPlayer.

The third major new feature that I hadn't yet mentioned is the addition of "video effects" to a call. I can't do it justice right now, without looking at it a lot more carefully. I can say, though, that my initial reaction was less than enthusiastic, for the same reason that I'm not thrilled with Logitech's "Video Effects" - making myself look like a shark, or having a dragon flying around in my video window, just isn't high on my list of priorities. But Philip Robertson from ooVoo told me in an email that you can also share your desktop via "video effects" - now that is something that interests me very much! So I looked into that very briefly, and it looks very, very good. Once you start the video effects, they are shown in your outgoing ooVoo video window (not in a separate window). You can select your desktop as the source, and then you can send either the entire desktop (which is quite small when crammed into an ooVoo video window), a specific window, any area that you mark, or you can tell it to simply follow your cursor. The whole thing seems to work VERY well, and I am honestly just blown away by it. The potential for this, as a multi-way video conference with shared desktop, is staggering. My only reservation about it is that it is based on a third-party product (WebcamMax), and it is not clear to me yet if there will eventually be other costs, licensing restrictions or requirements. I will investigate this as well.

So, as I said yesterday, congratulations ooVoo. You have done an excellent job on this release, and you have definitely raised the bar in the Video IM market. To top it all off, I am very encouraged that this is still called a "beta" release from ooVoo - that tells me they are expecting to work out the rough edges in this version, and maybe even add a few more treats! In my opinion, the best release that Skype ever produced was nowhere near the quality, reliability or features of this "Beta" from ooVoo!

jw 5/2/2008

I started the day today thinking that I would write a "Calm Before the Storm" blog entry, saying that things have been quiet for the past few weeks, but new releases are likely to be coming soon from all four of the major companies in Video IM. Well, it turns out that the "Storm" got to me before I would even write that. The first thing in my mail this morning was a notice that a new beta release is available from ooVoo.

This will be primarily a "First Impressions" writeup, because I obviously haven't had time to do very extensive testing yet. But I want to get this first one out quickly, just to say that this release looks VERY good, it is clearly a big step in the right direction. If this impression holds up after more testing, and I don't end up with egg on my face, this is going to be a very positive development for ooVoo. I've said several times that they had the potential to be a real leader in this market, and this could put them firmly in that position.

Ok, details. The download and installation is quick and easy, just as it was for the previous ooVoo release. Of course both of my laptops already had ooVoo version 1.1.0.6 on them, so just for variation in testing conditions, I installed on one of them without removing the previous release, and on the other I removed the previous version before installing the new release. Both installed without a hitch. I also verified that the new version is functionally compatible with the previous version, I was able to make video calls and chat sessions between the two with no problems.

Presence detection is good. With my two laptops running side by side on my desk, they each detected ooVoo on the other starting and stopping within a few seconds - as opposed to Skype, which is still unable to get this reliably right. I have watched these two laptops sit here with incorrect Skype status for each other literally for hours. As was even mentioned recently in the Skype Journal, "IM is nothing without simple presence signaling", so I guess Skype's inability to get this right means they are nothing, and ooVoo is definitely something!

The cosmetics of the user interface in the new ooVoo release are, if anything, even better than the previous version. First, they are consistent - no gratuitous changes, so we don't have to re-learn where or what previously familiar things are. New things that have been added fit in nicely, and look and work logically as well, to the point that I actually often have to have the old and new versions running side by side so I can see what has been added. This is really a non-trivial achievement, and it indicates that significant care and thought were given to the development, which is certainly not always the case. One good example of this is the extension of the previous "Favorites Sidebar Display" to the new "Video Call Sidebar View". It's a nice new feature, it fits well both functionally and conceptually, and I can easily think of situations where it will be useful.

I am very pleased indeed with the improvements in the camera controls. They have added a "Video quality" section, with a slider for setting outgoing video quality/bandwidth, and a drop-down selection for setting frame rate. This is an excellent implementation of a very good idea, and it puts the control over video quality and bandwidth use exactly where it should be, in the user's hands, rather than either trying to make the program figure it all out. I have complained many times about Skype's so-called "High Quality Video" being a poor implementation of a fundamentally bad idea, and now ooVoo comes along and gives us a first look at how it could and should be done properly. The issues and differences are quite clear:

- First, in determining "optimal" video quality, several potentially complex factors need to be considered: CPU/Memory capacity, camera quality, network bandwidth, receiving end capabilities. Trying to determine these on the fly in the program is extremely difficult, and results in things like webcams incessantly blinking on and off in Skype, video resolution being reduced to silly levels in an effort to keep frame rate up, and so on. Putting the controls in the user's hands, when they are sitting in front of the camera and can easily get a "feel" for what is possible, makes everything simpler and more reliable.

- Second, it is simply not true that "more is better" in every case. The fact that a given configuration CAN do higher resolution, frame rate, or both, doesn't mean that it unconditionally SHOULD do so. There are plenty of users, and plenty of situations, where limiting the bandwidth, data volume or system load takes priority over video quality. Again, giving the user control over this is clearly better.

- Third, even if you subscribe to the "more is better" and "let the computer decide" camps, getting this right is obviously difficult, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be severe - just ask some of the hundreds of Skype users who are complaining about video performance in their User Forums right now.

Another nice addition to the video call window is the ability to reduce the size of the outgoing video window. There still isn't as much control and flexibility in video window sizes as I would like to see, but it's obvious ooVoo is listening to their customers, and this is at least a good step in the right direction.

I have tested this release with three laptops and cameras so far:

Fujitsu Lifebook S6510, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz, 2 GB, XP Pro

Fujitsu Lifebook S2110, AMD Turion 64 2.0 GHz, 2 GB, XP Pro

Dell Inspiron 6000, Intel Pentium M 1.73 GHz, 1 GB, XP Pro

All three work very well with the new ooVoo release. One-to-one video call quality and speed are very significantly better than with the previous ooVoo release. The big news, though, is the improvement in the multi-way video conferencing performance. I've said before that this could be the "killer advantage" of ooVoo, if they could get it right and get the performance acceptable, and at first glance it looks like they might have done that with this release. A three-way video call with these laptops works just fine. There is none of the horrendous video lag that I experienced in a three-way call with the previous release. I will be doing more testing of this, and I'll write about it again in the next few days.

In conclusion, this looks like an excellent new release from ooVoo. They have made a lot of improvements in every area - appearance, performance and reliability. I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested in Video IM give it a try.