Continuing Skype’s commitment to rolling out new features on both Windows and Mac, the new update will include the following features:

* Skype Access
* Screen Sharing
* Improved chat management: ability to sort chats in the drawer and set priorities to chats
* Quick Add: much easier to add people to chats than previous versions
* Mood message chat: mood message updates from your friends as chat messages
* Large avatars: 256×256 pixels
* Hidden avatars in incoming contact requests
* Ability to add your own notes to contacts (if you need notes on business contacts etc)

Skype Access

One of the most impressive “new” features is “Skype Access”, a service that lets you go to any of the 100,000 Boingo WiFi hotspots and – using Skype – connect to the Boingo hotspot. When you connect, you pay on a minute by minute basis and the charge (which varies from country to country) is deducted from your Skype credit. There is no hourly or monthly fee for using the Boingo network, It is merely a way in which Skype try and increase their usability across the globe.

Considering that these hotspots will probably be only limited to certain busy areas in major cities, i cant quite see how this will take off – but will be useful to some heavy Skype users.

Screen Sharing

Another cool feature of the 2.8 beta is “screensharing” where you can share your entire screen with another

Skype will soon be releasing their 2.8 beta for Mac OSX

Skype user, this may be useful to demonstrate something, or even to simply show off your latest desktop wallpaper – i will update the benefits of this screen sharing concept in a later post.
System requirements
* Mac computer with G4 800 Mhz processor or faster.
* Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther or later.
* For higher-resolution video a faster processor (Core 2 Duo) and a broadband connection with at least    384kbps upload speeds.
* 512 MB RAM.
* 40 MB free disk space on your hard drive.
* Microphone and speakers or headset.
* Download drivers for your webcam.
* Internet connection (broadband is best, GPRS is not supported for voice calls, and results may vary on a satellite connection).

However, towards the end of the press release, we find this:

Press leaks suggest a possible 1TB Mac Mini

“Complete bundled server systems including a Mac mini server with 1 terabyte of storage are available starting at $1,495 (£1,000). The hosted Web service will be available starting in February 2009 at several pricing tiers, starting at under $50 (£30) per month.”

We can only assume that SeeFile will be selling minis bundled with their software and not Apple. Many people use minis as home servers, and with the rumor of huge storage capacity of 1TB HD all but confirmed by this possibly unwanted press release, building a very similar, web-accessible setup should become a piece of cake!

I will keep you updated as soon as we hear more info from the Macworld 2009 Conference.

System Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4+
• Intel CPU
• 256MB RAM
• 100MB available hard disk space

You will be able to get the same features available on Window in the Mac version, be sure to check it out.

Check out the features in this Youtube vid:

The real issues for me are :

1. There are less Mac users than Windows users.

2. Mac software therefore is less profitable than Windows softwaree, and as a result less likeley to be made.

3. Macs arent really designed for ‘gaming’ as such.

This is just something i have to live with, unless of course Apples gains enough marketshare and it is unavoidable to write software solely for Windows.

I like to play online poker, and i will admit that this is best done on a PC right now (most sites dont offer Mac software). Although some sites offer a instant play, web based version of the software – this is often slow and limiting. Luckily for me however, two of the more established Online poker sites Full Tilt and Pokerstars have took the plunge.

To run alongside these sites, I recently found a decent Hand history tracking tool, similar to the mighty Pokertracker that has been made especially for Mac (Although there are rumours that Pokertracker will eventually introduce a Mac version, so keep your eyes peeled). So props to Poker Copilot for keeping my hands logged and up to date, you never know when some play analysis can come in handy!