Skype To Support Video Conferences Next Week

As of next week, Skype will begin to support video calls to up to four other users, that's five total. The public beta of "Group Video Calling" will be Windows only from the get-go, but they will be rolling out a Mac version later this year, as well. At launch, the feature will be free, but Skype says that in about three or four months (when the Mac version is supposed to be out), they plan to charge for the feature. It'll probably be aimed at the business realm, but I still think it's idiotic that they plan to charge for this. Skype is known for free Skype-to-Skype calls, and conference video chatting is a feature that's been requested for quite some time, not to mention that iChat, ooVoo, TinyChat, and many others offer the feature absolutely free. This has less of a use-case in the corporate setting, because so many offices already have a secure professional video conferencing setup implemented. It makes more sense for use in the home for long distance families to keep in touch, or for friends to get together online. Hopefully they reconsider before too long. Windows users, you should be able to download and give it a shot next week.