Skype has rolled out an updated Android app that adds support for 14 new devices — including a couple of tablets running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb and up. Skype 2.5 is the first version of the voice, video, and text chat app that supports video calling on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola XOOM, and Acer Iconia Tab A500.

The new app also adds support to video calls to the Google Nexus One and a couple other phones. What’s significant here is that the Nexus One doesn’t actually have a front-facing camera. This means you can see the person you’re talking to, or share the view from your rear camera. But you won’t be able to conduct a face-to-face call on the Nexus One.

If you’ve been using Skype on your device without any problems though, you might want to hold off on the update — since Skype 2.5 is also the first version of the company’s Android app to include in-app advertising. If you’re a paying Skype subscriber you won’t see any ads. But if you only use the software to make free calls to other Skype users and haven’t bought Skype credit to use with premium features such as placing calls to telephone numbers, the old app is ad-free. The new app is not.

It’s been about three months since Google launched the Google+ social network, and today the company is removing the beta label. Anyone can sign up for the service. Google also launched a few major updates today, including some new features that are available in a web browser and a few that are available on mobile devices.

The biggest change for mobile users is support for Hangouts. These are group video chatrooms that you could previously set up at a moment’s notice on any computer with a webcam, mic, and supported web browser. Now you can join a Hangout using the Google+ app for Android. The feature is also coming soon to the Google+ iOS app.

If you’re in the US or India you can also now post to Google+ or receive notifications using SMS instead of a mobile app. The mobile apps for Android and iOS also let you send a message directly to an individual by typing +username. And the iOS app now lets you add a +1 to a comment, not just a post. The Android app will get this feature soon.

Other mobile updates include the ability to edit your profile photo, customize notifications, and share photos using the Messenger service (previously known as Huddle). Android users can also now move the Google+ app to an SD card.

The desktop version of Google+ also gets some nifty new features including:

• Search (seriously, how was this not available before?)
• Record or “broadcast” Hangouts (10 people can chat, but there’s no limit on how many people can watch)
• Share documents, a sketchpad, or share your screen in a Hangout

You can sign up for Google+ at plus.google.com.

Skype finally got around to launching a 2-way video chat for the iPad recently, but competitor Fring already has a 4-way video chat app for the iPhone and iPad. But if that’s not good enough for you, Tinychat has you covered with a new app that lets you participate in group video calls with up to 12 people.

Yes. 12. No. I don’t know why you’d want to see 11 of your friends faces in tiny windows on your iPhone screen, but the free app does also support the iPad.

Here’s how it works. You can fire up the free TinychatFB app on your iOS device and it will show you a list of all your Facebook contacts that are online. You can invite any of them to participate in a video chat and Tinychat will send them a link to a website.

Tinychat’s desktop service is entirely browser-based. There’s no software to install. As long as your computer has a camera and a microphone you just visit the web app to participate in video chatrooms that take just a few seconds to setup.

The company’s new mobile app only lets you communicate with your Facebook contacts — not with other Tinychat mobile users. But a future app will add its own contact list and other features that lets you setup and participate in group video calls with or without Facebook.

via TechCrunch

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Tango offers an app that lets users make free video calls from an iPhone or Android devices. Now the company plans to extend the service to include computers. That means you’ll soon be able to make a video call from your PC to a contact using a phone, or vice versa.

The company clearly isn’t the first to market with a cross-platform video communication app. Apple’s FaceTime app for iOS and Mac already offers this, and Skype offers video calling on iOS and some Android devices.

But Tango already supports more mobile devices than Skype or FaceTime and the company has managed to sign up 18 million users in 190 countries already.

The desktop app will be available later this summer, but you can sign up at the Tango website to receive a notification when it’s available for download.

Skype launched version 2.0 of its mobile app for Android this week, adding support for 2-way video chat. The only catch? The feature only works on 4 supported phones. If you don’t have one of those devices you can still make voice calls to other Skype users or to telephone numbers using the app, but you’re missing out on one of Skype’s biggest features.

Fortunately, it took all of about a day and a half for someone to crack open the app and figure out how to make it work on additional devices.

Not all phones are supported. I was able to install the hacked version of Skype 2.0 on my Google Nexus One and on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. While the Galaxy Tab has a front-facing camera, the app crashes every time I try to login. I’m guessing the app simply wasn’t designed for tablets running Android 3.1. The Google Nexus One gets a little further… even showing an option to place a video call. But when I click the button the screen turns sideways and then… nothing happens. I’m guessing the app doesn’t know what do on phones that don’t have front-facing cameras.

Anyway, there are definitely reports of the hacked version of Skype working on some additional handsets. If you want to give it a try, just make sure your phone is configured to let you install apps from unkown sources (you can probably find a check box in the Applications menu in your phone’s settings) and then download and run the .apk installer from the VillainROM forum.

Skype has finally added video to its Android app. You can now make free voice or video calls to other Skype users from your Android smartphone. It doesn’t matter if the person you’re calling is using Android, iOS, a PC, or even a TV. Video calls work over WiFi or 3G connections.

That’s the good news. The less good news is that Skype only supports video calls on a handful of phones. You need Android 2.3 and a front-facing camera. Right now the only phones that are officially supported are the Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, and Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro.

There’s no Skype app at all for tablets running Android 3.x Honeycomb.

Skype 2.0 for Android also features a redesigned user interface with a new start screen that lets you call phones, view your contact list, or see your profile or history. There’s also a “share” button for updating your Skype status.

You can download Skype 2.0 for free from the Android Market.

Competitor Fring recently rolled out support for 4-way video calling on Android and iOS — but not only do you need four friends to take advantage of that one-upsmanship, but you need four friends that actually use Fring. If the company keeps beating Skype to the punch, it might not be that hard to find people willing to give Fring a try, but for now Skype has a much larger user base which makes today’s announcement pretty big — even if it only affects Android users with a few handsets.

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A few months ago Fring launched an update to its voice and video chat app that allows up to 4 people to talk to one another in the same video call. The 4-way video chat was initially designed for iPhone, iPod touch, or Android. Now the company has launched an update that’s optimized fro the iPad.

The new app features an iPad view which makes better use of the large screen on Apple’s tablet. There’s also now support for Bluetooth headsets when using Fring on an iPhone.

Fring is available as a free download from the App Store, and calls to other Fring users are free. If you want to make calls from Fring to a telephone line you’ll have to pay for fringOut credit.

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Yahoo has launched an updated version of Yahoo Messenger which brings support for video chat to the iPad 2. Yahoo Messenger 2.1 is also the first version of the app optimized for the iPad display. Users can make calls to anyone using the Yahoo Messenger app for iOS, Android, PC, or Mac.

The app is also available as a free download for the iPhone and iPod touch and includes better spam management and several bug fixes.

This makes Yahoo Messenger one of the first apps optimized for the iPad 2 to offer video chat, and puts the app in direct competition with apple’s FaceTime video calling service.

via 9 to 5 Mac