The headline on Skype's blog post today reads "Skype now available for Android phones."
But if you use an Android device in the United States, that sentence may only confuse you.
First, Skype arrived on Verizon Wireless Android phones back in February, as part of an exclusive deal the Luxembourg-based Internet-calling service signed with that carrier.
Second, the seventh of eight lines of small type at the end of the post makes it clear that this new version of Skype remains subject to whatever bargain its developers struck with Verizon:
In the US, you can make calls only over WiFi.
If you want to call a pal overseas via Skype outside of WiFi range on an Android device, you'll need to use Verizon. Then again, the Verizon flavor of Skype doesn't work over WiFi; it's 3G only.
Perhaps at some point, Skype will figure out how to ship an Internet-calling app in the U.S. that's not so picky about data connections. One tip: Its Android developers could check in with its iPhone developers, whose app works over both 3G and WiFi.
Android Police's first-look review warns that the Skype app eats processor cycles during calls and needs 14 megabytes of internal storage. That last limitation may complicate installing it on phones that arrived already crammed with useless carrier-installed apps.
Meanwhile, you have other options. TechCrunch's post notes that the free Fring app can make Skype calls over both 3G and WiFi. If you can do without WiFi-only calling and have voice minutes to spare, another option comes from Google itself--its free Google Voice app.
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