Examples of sites and applications broken by Skype 5.
http://www.dailybooth.com - core feature of the site http://www.facebook.com - webcam record and "take a photo" feature http://www.picnik.com - image editors that have import from webcam http://www.webcamsnapper.com - webcam photo widget used by brizzly, dailybooth, many other sites. (disclosure: my company built this app) adobe connect, dimdim, etc - online meeting apps
Skype has been aware of this issue since the release of the beta in November and yet they have not fixed it before the general release. According to their issue tracker they say this new behavior is "by design".
https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721
In the old Skype (2.8) this was not a problem, so something has changed. If indeed this is not a bug and is "by design" then it is a very worrying move. Imagine for a moment things were reversed. Say for instance a new release of Flash stopped all video calls working in iChat or Skype. People would be outraged, Gruber would have a heart attack.
Just to be 100% clear, Skype doesn't need to be in a video call for it to block webcam access by Flash. It simply needs to be running. The only fix is to shut down Skype then reload your browser. After this the webcam will start working again in Flash. The only long term fix is to uninstall Skype 5 and install an older version.
More discussion of the issue in Skype forum: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=782411
Examples of sites and applications broken by Skype 5.
* http://www.dailybooth.com - core feature of the site
* http://www.facebook.com - webcam record and "take a photo" feature
* http://www.picnik.com - image editors that have import from webcam
* http://www.webcamsnapper.com - webcam photo widget used by brizzly, dailybooth, many other sites. (disclosure: my company built this app)
* adobe connect, dimdim, etc - online meeting apps
Skype has been aware of this issue since the release of the beta in November and yet they have not fixed it before the general release. According to their issue tracker they say this new behavior is "by design".
https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721
In the old Skype (2.8) this was not a problem, so something has changed. If indeed this is not a bug and is "by design" then it is a very worrying move. Imagine for a moment things were reversed. Say for instance a new release of Flash stopped all video calls working in iChat or Skype. People would be outraged, Gruber would have a heart attack.
Just to be 100% clear, Skype doesn't need to be in a video call for it to block webcam access by Flash. It simply needs to be running. The only fix is to shut down Skype then reload your browser. After this the webcam will start working again in Flash. The only long term fix is to uninstall Skype 5 and install an older version.
More discussion of the issue in Skype forum: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=782411
Note that one commenter observes:
"This also affects windows users, its not just Mac."
In actionscript you can:
detect whether there are webcams present on the system
examine the pixels output by the webcam
if (hasWebcam && imageFromWebCamIsAllBlack){
showMessage([pick your own verbiage] + ' Skype v5')
}
"I have to rectify the term I used before, this issue found to be a "bug", not "by design", We are working on the issue and will be fixed in future updates. Sorry for making confusions.
Thank you"
God, and ALL of the top links take me to a "PAY ME MONIES" page? And I have to browse 6 at a time with nothing but a thumbnail? I'd sad I wasted the time to sign up to be frank...
Of control of hardware access should be by user choice only, not a side effect of an app. Counting on stored Flash settings isn't an option since many use Better Privacy (Firefox extension) or other utilities to delete Flash storage, including the settings, due to the stalking features.
There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong.
Download version 2.8 - http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php
It is in fact atrocious, for a mainstream piece of software. Many of us gave them feedback that the new client is WAY too generous with the space, at least for us with more than 5 contacts online. They did very little from the beta to the general release.
It's horrible design, and I can't help but think that no one at Skype has actually used it for anything, which seems improbable. I've heard that the Android version does the same thing as well. It's just terrible.
It's really impressive to me they could publish such a terrible UI.
In other words Skype is designed for the 90% not us 10%
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2011/01/mac.html
It's their "big announcement", and it's followed by the longest, and most vitriolic stream of comments from people who are appalled by the terrible design. It's the only thing 9/10 comments even mention.
The amazing thing is that near the bottom, their "Blogger in Chief" Peter Parks provides a point-by-point reply to each of the comments that didn't mention the UI (there are a handful), while completely ignoring the issue receiving all the attention. He actually gets called out on this, only to come back with half-baked line about "your thoughts about the new UI are very valuable to the Mac team here."
Which, of course, is total bullshit. They're the exact same comments the Mac team received by the boatload and promptly ignored during the beta.
It seems unlikely to me that all these companies amount to only 10% of overall skype usage.
1) not sure it’s true this is the case (show me the numbers or concrete reasoning), and
2) more importantly, I believe this is a flawed approach because it’s in Skype’s best interest for users to have lots of active contacts/friends/numbers in the system. Why design in such a way that discourages desirable behavior?
It’s a failed design, and I don’t think that supposed 90% rule really applies
Maybe Skype should become classified as malware. This is only the latest in a series of huge bugs because Skype tries to integrate with every application.
Thank you"
2. Company rep asks, “Can you provide us your feedback? You can send feedback through Skype Menu -> Provide Skype Feedback … Thanks” and provides not a glimpse of insight into why the customer is being asked to submit this complaint elsewhere instead of the rep just, you know, doing his job and getting the message wherever it needs to be, himself.
3. Customer: WTF, didn’t I just do that here?
4. Support person: “Currently, this [issue] is by design.”
5. Other users express outrage, and this is posted to HN today
6. Today, rep “rectifies” previous statement and says it is a “bug, not by design.”
(Can we get something to the HN front page about Skype for iPhone’s terrible behavior of loading all chat messages in chronological order, taking literally half an hour before the app is usable?)
The iPhone app does that too? The Android app doesn't do it until you open a conversation... but it does it every time you switch to that conversation, making it utterly unusable and potentially embarassing!
I'm trying really hard to figure out what localization this guy's keyboard is set to.
Please upgrade to 5.0.0.7994: http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-macosx
If you couple this with the UI of Skype for Mac 5, you have plenty of reasons to remain with version 2.8.
Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com).
And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.
Flash video recording worked perfectly fine for me btw.
