Skype me

After playing around with the final version of Skype 2.0, I think I'm going to make it my main IM client, at least on my laptop.

First, it seems to manage memory much better than Yahoo At idle, Skype uses 4-5 megs, vs. 19 or more for Yahoo -- and once Yahoo needs more memory for a higher-end feature , it never seems to give it back up when it's done. Adding IM environments, animated gestures, Yahoo Music integration adds up.

Skype's voice calling features are still the best among the IM clients I've tried -- though I haven't played around with Google Talk's voice features yet. Being able to forward calls to regular phones and having a version for Pocket PCs are really handy features. Video conferencing (at least for Windows) just clinches the deal.

The one downside, of course, is that most of my friends are on Yahoo. If only someone made a Yahoo plugin for Skype...

IE 7.0

I finally got around to playing with the new beta for Internet Explorer 7. I'm not quite ready to switch back from Firefox yet, but it's a big improvement. I especially like the slick RSS features, such as on-the-fly keyword filtering.

It can automatically download updates in the background and attach files, even if IE isn't running. Downloaded into the right folder, that means Windows finally might support automated podcasts on Windows media devices. But if this is true, I don't know why Microsoft doesn't come right out and say it. I'll try setting something up tonight to see if it works.

The Web page thumbnails -- which work a little like Apple's Expose feature -- are also nice.