Skype application uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to provide voice-based communication with other Internet users.

The technology is extremely advanced, but easy to use. It features excellent sound quality, end-to-end encryption, and automatic negotiation of firewalls or routers.

Here are some key features of "Skype":

· Free unlimited worldwide phone calls to other Skype users
· Superior sound quality
· Works with all firewalls, NAT and routers. Nnothing to configure!
· Friends list shows you when your Skype friends are online and ready to talk or chat
· Super-simple and easy to use
· Your calls are encrypted “end-to-end” in order to safeguard your privacy
· Based on cutting edge peer-to-peer technology developed by the creators of Kazaa and Joltid

Requirements:

· Qt
· D-Bus
· Libsigc++
· libasound2
· 1 Ghz processor or faster
· 256 MB RAM
· 20 MB free disk space on your hard drive
· Microphone and speakers or headset
· Internet connection (broadband is best, GPRS is not supported for voice calls, and results may vary on a satellite connection)
· Video card driver with Xv support

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

New features:
· Screen sharing.
· Report abuse.
· Support for UI styles.
· Possibility to quote a message.
· Localized time formats.

Improvements:
· Instant Messaging performance improvements.
· Possibility to add more email addresses to profile.
· Load all historical group conversations into event history.
· PulseAudio: Possibility to choose different audio device for ringing and notifications.
· A message is displayed when the user tries to add contacts that already are his/her buddies.
· Incoming contact request dialog.

Bugs fixed:
· Crashes when an Instant Message is out of order.
· Skype crashed after turning on animated emoticons.
· Pressing F6 at login screen makes Skype to crash.
· Skype crashes when trying to send a SMS to some invalid numbers.
· Skype crashes when clicking on an invalid Skype Name link, ie. "22".
· Skype crashes when using cancel button in "add SMS Members" window and then pushing "Add" again.
· Crashes when clicking on popup event after logged out from Skype.
· Crashes when calling conference call with auto send video and privacy set to "nobody".
· Using "CLEAR CALLHISTORY ALL" API call will cause a crash.
· HTML injections on profile's Home Page.
· Local time timezone has no longer an invalid value.
· s/old/new/ command is not escaped.
· Editing a message will not change the timestamp of the message. The edited timestamp is displayed in the tooltip of the pencil icon.
· A group conversation stays bookmarked when left.
· Misordered day dividers are handled properly.
· Instant Message search settings are not working and saved.
· Day separator in conversations was not behaving well.
· In some cases the Instant Message disappears until the next IM arrives.
· Wrong message displayed when adding a group conversation picture.
· Do not select all text when editing a message.
· Newly bookmarked conversation now work well with quickfilter.
· Bookmarked IM's don't appear in contact list if done via history for never opened IM's.
· With QT 4.5.x contact groups get collapsed after a while.
· Option dialog resizes to fit the text.
· Voicemail recording/resetting works better.
· Selecting second camera to won't work unless Apply is clicked.
· Under SMS options the "My mobile phone number.." is always greyed out.
· Escape key now exits fullscreen on a video call and when testing video in Video options.
· Escape key doesn't close "options" window.
· No ringing sound on default Alsa device.
· PulseAudio: AGC works better and does not put volume to 0.
· PulseAudio: Sounds cut-off at the end and perhaps PA sound stuttering.
· SMS character counter do not work correctly when adding emoticons.
· Minor improvements for displaying error message when searching/adding existed contacts.
· Add a Skype Contact window grows when switching back from Add a Phone Number Contact.
· API: OPEN IM sends message instead of adding it to input area.
· Calling without enough credit shows as a dropped call.
· Close change password dialog when pressing escape.
· Declining multiple file sendings doesn't work.

Localization:
New in bundled languages:
· Ukrainian - Oleh Nykyforchyn.
Back in bundled languages:
· European Portuguese - Francisco Miguel Ferreira
· Spanish
· Japanese
· Korean
· Latvian
· Simplified Chinese
· Traditional Chinese
· Thai
Updated languages:
· Bulgarian - Nikolay Filipov & Nikolina Filipova
· German - Claudius Henrichs
· Estonian - Marit Mesipuu
· French - Cédric Lamouche
· Italian - Marco Cimmino
· Lithuanian - Viktoras Kriukovas
· Polish - Karol Szastok
· Brazilian Portuguese - Fabio Roselet
· Romanian - Péter Henning & Mónika Iancu
· Russian - Pavel Shevchuk
· Turkish - Ömer Emin Dede.
· Countries and languages were not correctly translated under Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Chinese Simplified and Traditional.