THEBASEMENT

I tend to believe that an updated computer is a happy computer. Being up to date (almost) always means being more secure and less buggy. This is just how it is in the hi-tech world we live in today. I am currently running on the beta build of Chrome 11 (in this instance, though it may be more buggy, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks), Firefox 4, my OS is fully up to date, and our blog is running on the most recent version of WordPress. Unfortunately, however, I have come upon two different updates in less than a week that I felt were so detrimental to my workflow, that I actually reverted back to the older version within a matter of minutes.

Old Skype

The first update came from Skype. Previously running version 2.8, when I was informed by the app that version 5 was available for download, I was incredibly surprised. How had I been so behind on updates? Why hadn’t it informed me of version 3 or 4? Well, I learned that it was not I that had been missing updates. Skype for Mac literally went from version 2.8 to version 5. I don’t know if they had been updating the other platform’s versions and they just wanted to unify the numbers, or perhaps the company just forgot how to count, but it’s true.

Either way, to continue my common practice, I immediately hit download. Unfortunately, the night the app informed me was actually a Tuesday night right before we went live with 20min in TheBasement (check your local listings) and thus had to postpone it until later. Interestingly, later on I had discovered that Skype hadn’t even told me about the update until two months after it was released, but that is a topic better left for a different article.

Once the update was downloaded and installed, I was horrified. Now… the Mac version of Skype had never been “elegant” or “pretty” in comparison to other Mac apps, but at the very least it was functional. Mimicking what looks like a normal chat application, there was one window designated towards your contacts, one window for text chatting, and once a call is started, one window for the call itself. This was wonderful. It allows one to text chat with one person, whilst video/audio chatting with another. This could all be done with only using as much screen space as you would like. Due to the separate nature of the windows, you could freely minimize what you were not using at the time.

New Skype

Version 5, on the other hand, decided that it would be best to put everything in one singular window, much larger than all of v.2.8′s windows combined, and give you no easy way to use all of Skype’s benefits at the same time. You technically can now slide open both the contacts and chat boxes within the singular box… but this takes up more room and is less organized than when they were their own separate windows.

Levels make me happy.

Moving forward, I have also found several personal peeves about the new version that do not necessarily affect the general population. We at toTheBasement use Skype every week to produce our live tech shows with hosts across the nation. It is an essential tool, and had several features that I once took for granted as being no-brainers that would always be there. Firstly, when trying to broadcast the audio of several people with different mics, in different rooms, on different speeds of Internet, it is often true that one person may be much louder than another. Because of this, it was fantastic that v. 2.8 actually provided me with audio levels of each individual so we could balance our voices with ease. The new version destroys this feature, and instead gives you a glow around the icon of anyone that is currently talking. I understand that not everyone needs to see levels, but why remove a feature when it could have easily been included, even if it isn’t activated by default?

Glowing boxes do not.

A second peeve of mine with the new Skype stems, once again, from their apparent need to combine everything into one box. I, like many technically inclined individuals, have more than one monitor. I like to utilize the fact that I have more than one monitor. As such, I will often have my iChat buddy list on one screen, while the chat window is on another. In the past, I enjoyed having the current call window of Skype on one screen, while the other two windows resided in a second display. This especially worked well for me when going live on this site, due to the huge amount of apps required to do so.

Luckily this update isn’t required, and after reverting back to v. 2.8 I have not had any issues so far. However, it really makes me wonder, is this really a terrible update to a wonderful application, or am I just starting to get grumpy? Are my apparent issues with change presenting themselves in the tech sector now? Or am I rightfully disgruntled? I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide that.

Like this article? Leave a comment below, and we’ll continue with the Bad Updates series!

Hate this article? Leave a comment below, and we’ll still probably continue with the Bad Updates series!

About Dan Bush

Dan is the co-founder of toTheBasement.com along with Adam Edelen, and is currently residing as the Lead Architect and Editor-in-Chief. He loves RC Cola like a hippo has noodles on his back. (a lot.)

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