Need to connect with nine of your closest friends around the world at the same time? It may be possible with Skype's 5.0 beta for Windows. Skype is doubling the amount of peope that can be involved in a video call from five to ten.

This new beta, which is currently available for download, also implements automatic call recovery, a cleaner user interface, and call quality improvement among other bug fixes. Users are reporting numerous bugs with the new features, but with this being a beta this is to be expected. When the features are smoothed out, it will definitely be a great shot fired back at Google and their new video calling service.