Skype For iOS4 Out – Multitasking and No Charge for 3G

Skype has released an updated version of their iPhone app, complete with iOS4 features such as multitasking. This seems to be a fixed update, following the error which caused Skype to recently disappear from all iTunes app stores. Now you can make and receive Skype calls on your iPhone seamlessly as you can leave the app running in the background. Previously, the app would have to be running and active in order to receive a call, crippling its ability to be used as a regular phone line.

This also paves the way for very usable, very cheap calling on the iPhone, especially if you use an iPad 3G SIM to get a data-only iPhone plan.

Skype has been under some pressure from its userbase of late to add this functionality, as it has been anticipated for a while now and incorporates some very important usability features. Impatient users have resorted to tying their Skype accounts to Fring, a third-party app that acts as a front-end for many communications programs and protocols and is kept very up to date. Skype and Fring recently got into a battle of words over video chatting over the Skype network on the new iPhone.

In addition, Skype has canceled its plans to begin charging a small monthly fee for 3G calls, instead keeping that functionality free. You will however still have to pay for a Skype-In number and Skype-Out credit, but those can be had for very low rates considering what you can do with them.