Just last week I gave Skype a bad review running on my iOS4 iPhone4.  Had I waited a few days I would have painted a much different picture.

The new iOS4 compatible version of Skype rocks!  I’ve tried it extensively the past few days and it really works.  I’ve received many calls as Skype silently lurks in the background.  The previous version did not work at all since it did not take advantage of the new operating system.  Every time I put Skype in the background using the old version it would log me out so multi-tasking was never achieved, it was more like multi-standby.  This version got it right.

You must remember to specifically close down Skype with the new version when you go to bed at night.  Otherwise you’ll wake up when someone calls you, thinking that you are online.  Yes, because the new version really works in the background, you always show up as online on Skype.  I use Skype with all my Swedish friends so the eight hour time difference makes for interesting call hours.  Thus I got a few calls at crazy early morning hours.  Now I make sure to shut Skype down at night.

Having a choice, I prefer Fring over Skype since Fring works over 3G and it makes use of the front-facing camera on the iPhone4.  I wish Fring would add camera switching so it would work like FaceTime where you can switch between the front and back facing camera in real time.  Perhaps that will become available in the new release.  I don’t use FaceTime because most of my friends don’t have the new iPhone4.

Fring has shown that 3G calling with video really works but with features such as Skype-Out and Skype-In, Skype has a definite advantage.  I do all my international calling using Skype but my Fring contacts are growing by the week.

As a last remark, remember that you can use your iPhone4 with Fring to call iPhone 3GS/3G phones.  They will see your front-facing camera view of the iPhone4 camera and you will see their back-facing camera view.  It’s a bit wacky but it’s still video-calling over 3G.

What are your opinions?  I love this stuff!