iPhone Game: Myst for iPhone & iPod Touch

On 05.06.09, In iPhone, by Rehman

iphone-case

After a flurry of denials, Skype, the popular VoIP service finally lands on the Apple App Store.

The application would be available for download this Tuesday, for iphones

and iPod Touch devices, though the later would require a headset with an embedded microphone to make voice calls.

The official iPhone app brings in features that are on par with other Skype mobile clients. With all the basic stuff you need like Chat, VoIP calls and and an address book, the app packs all you need to make free calls with your iPhone, along with a couple of exclusive features that take advantage of the iPhone hardware.

Though you can make VoIP calls, they are restricted to Wi-Fi networks only, meaning that you can’t make calls on your carrier. This limitation was probably added to compensate for the iPhone EDGE and the iPod Touch. Calls can be put on hold, but you can’t take more than one call at the same time. This would also ease the pressure of competition the application would bring on the cellular carriers who have long seen Skype as a threat.

You can participate in a conference call though, but you can’t initiate one from the iPhone. One nice feature is the ability to buy credit from within the application, in case you want to call non Skype contacts. The contacts themselves can be organized and searched using the iPhone’s filtering capabilities.

The interface is nice and polished; pretty much what you would expect from an iPhone application. Skype also makes use of the iPhone camera to take photos for avatar but you can’t make video calls with it, a feature which was recently introduced in Skype 4 for Windows.

The application lands on the App Store tomorrow, so be sure to check it out. Users of multi-protocol instant messenger applications like Nimbuzz and Fring may also give Skype a try. It certainly doesn’t have the chat capabilities those apps offer, but the voice quality is a whole lot better.