Skype 5.8 ready for Mountain Lion, improves contact list

Skype 5.8 hit the streets today, and for those who may not have been happy about the full-screen user interface that was introduced in Skype 5.0, it's an update worth loading.

Skype's Krishna Panicker notes on the Skype Big Blog that "You've been very vocal with your thoughts about the revamped full-screen user interface ... and we've been listening intently." The app now provides the slim contact list that was in previous versions, and you can put the contact list anywhere on your screen that you like.

When someone is calling you from an iPhone, iPad or Android phone using a native Skype app, Skype for Mac now detects the orientation of the screen on the mobile device and re-orients the video call on the Mac. Skype Premium subscribers will be happy to know that Screen Sharing has been updated -- it's now possible to display your live video along with your photos, and you can see the reaction of your friends or relatives on the call.

The biggest news, however, is that Skype 5.8 is ready to work with OS X Mountain Lion, which ships next month. Skype says that an upcoming update adds the ability to open chats in separate windows.