On the heels of yesterday's announcement that SkypeOut to the US and Canada won't be free starting in January, the company now released version 3.0 of its free Skype internet phone-calling software, now available for download. We downloaded the new version and it does have a spruced up interface, adding a tab for public chats that hopefully makes that easier to accomplish. There's also a new click-to-call feature that lets you click a number on a webpage to dial it.

This Skype service just gets better and better, and maybe it is worth that $29.95 annual price ($14.95 until February 1). Another great deal is international calling, where you can buy SkypeOut minutes and it's cheap as dirt. Notice that $8.08 of Skype Credit remaining on the top right of my screen shot? On a recent trip to India I thought I'd need $10 worth of SkypeOut minutes, but it only cost me $1.92 for hours upon hours of gabbing half-way around the world. Great deal, especially since Skype-to-Skype calling will still be free. – Charlie White

Download Skype (Free) [Skype Limited, via lifehacker]

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