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PLEASE!!!! keep your political views and/or personal feelings about certain public figures to yourselves. The last time I posted this blog entry, it got demoted off the front page thanks to those political views and attacks, so please don't air them here this time?
If you're thinking about downloading the new version of Skype, be careful. more than a few people have lost either voice, video, or contact lists after starting it.
Right now, Beverly Taff, in the U.K. is having a deuce of a time trying to get the voice part of it to work and she just today manage to retrieve her contact list. Persephone, also in the U.K. has had similar problems.
Skype is still urging me to download the newest version but I have been and will continue to resist it.
We need someone with software knowledge who might have a way to solve this problem.
Again, please do NOT exercise any political views or personal feelings about public figures! Just some software knowledge. Thank you in advance.
Catherine Linda Michel
Comments
Free service?
When you use a free service you become the product.
I hate masterspy. I won't use their browser. Their services do not play well with any other browser. That is all I know. The only answer I can come up with as far as contacts go is maintain them in a separate file. Oh and use services provided by masterspy's competitors, even if they are just as much spying on you.
It is not always 'free'
When you call a real phone line you are charged.
I used to use Skype when travelling abroad and wanted to call home. It saved me a whole heap of money. My calls from say Kolkata were charged at UK rates (for a UK destination) rather than using £1+++/minute.
That said, Misersoft want people to move to Skype for Business and tie you into an Office 365 contract.
In the end, they will just throw a switch and your old version will simply stop working altogether.
It really is time for an alternative. Not sure what though.
Samantha
There are alternatives for text, voice and video.
Not sure if alternatives are any good with calling "normal" phones.
Viber, Whatsapp, Google Talk.
And yes, Skype saved me thousands in calling European or US numbers from the Far East.
But... It still was independent small virus. (you remember, that original Skype used virus engine with replication turned off and chat features with voice calls as a payload. So it was virtually impossible to block Skype communications at the time)...
So... Recipe is simple. Get alternative contact info for your Skype contacts, use it while it lives, move to something when it dies. It is a technology. So it will die someday. Just be prepared.
Anyways, everybody has a smartphone now. So if you have Whatsapp, Viber, Signal and Telegram (And Badoo if you need to contact China) it should allow you to communicate with 99.9% of world population.
Thank you
Many thanks for the warning. I ONLY use Skype in it's original function as a chat (text only!) and none of the other versions. And this was the requisite when SKYPE was allowed it to be distributed from its original producer. It happenes to be a Swede as I am.
GinnieG
A possible solution....maybe.
I talked with my computer guru and he told me that you need to download the DESKTOP version of skype. Apparently there is a serious problem (as if we didn't know that) with the Windows 10 version. So go to skype and locate the DESKTOP VERSION. That should (I hope) solve your problem.
you don't have to uninstall the Windows 10 version since that doesn't auto-launch, but the Desktop version will.
I don't know much more about computers and software past hitting a switch (button) and turning one on, or clicking on a link, so I don't know if this WILL be the solution, but it is at least a possibility.
Cathy
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
iMessages, Facetime
Can be used point-to-point anywhere in the world where there is connectivity. Yes, it require Apple equipment on both ends but that is not a bad investment and can, if necessary, be borrowed.