SkypeMenuX is a menu that allows you to access Skype status and buddy info from the MacOS X System Notification area (the iconic menus on the right hand side of the MacOS X menu bar). Similar in nature to the iChat menu but for skype.

This is version 0.6b.

When you select one of your online buddies listed in the menu, a submenu will appear that can be used to start either a voice call or an Instant Message (IM) chat window with that buddy.

This version also brings a preferences window that allows you to request SkypeMenuX and Skype to launch at startup.

Due to popular demand (from Lars), I have hacked my ancient blog software to provide the full conent of the blog in the feed. It should be formatted reasonably since the content is being run through ns_adp_parse, but please let me know if you notice any anomolies.

I thought it would be worth quoting verbatim this recent comment, and my reply to it, from the SkypeMenuX VersionTracker page.

The online contacts list ("buddies") in the menu works as advertised. I find the program to be stable and useful, which is why it's taken up permanent residence in my menubar.

I have to say, the developer is perhaps the most responsive I've ever seen. I just got through checking out his replies to my previous review. Yes, I'm aware that I can hide Skype if I launch it at system start up, but then I'm stuck with an idle app in the background, eating RAM and CPU cycles. This might not sound like a big deal for someone with a G4 or G5 machine over 1GHz and tons of RAM, but I'm on a G3 500MHz with 512MB. It makes a difference to me if I have open apps just sitting idle. Not trying to be snarky here, because I see that the developer has added the ability to hide Skype after launch as a feature request on the SourceForge page, just trying to point out why.

While I'm on the subject of feature requests, "Quit Skype" should be an item by itself in the menu (probably below the status indicator and above available buddies), and "Quit SkypeMenuX" should be on a sub-menu at the bottom like it is now. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally quit SkypeMenuX when I meant to quit Skype. For reference, I would refer you to the ClamXAV FolderSentry menu item - in order to abort a scan, you have to select "Abort Scans" from the menu, and "Really Abort Scans" from the sub-menu. A simple, but effective way of confirming an abort, because you have to select a sub-menu item. And yes, I know I can quit Skype in other ways, but when I'm already in the menubar disconnecting from the internet and/or logging out of iChat, it's just convenient to go to SkypeMenuX to quit Skype.

Just some thoughts.

Thanks for your feedback Richard! See everyone why it's good to provide feedback, your feature requests make it into the mext version :)

Everyone has different ways of using their Mac, and a developer doesn't always think of the best way to lay things out to suit people.

On specifics, there is not going to be a way to have Skype not running. I can probably hide it better, but the actual connection is handled by the Skype.app executable and not the API libraries - so if Skype is not running then you don't have a login. Only the people at Skype can change that so I will drop them a suggestion (Although I guess they are too busy adding video chat to the client right now).

The next version has stalled a little because I upgraded my Mac and with it I upgraded to Tiger and Xcode 2.2. Unfortunately I have had a little teething problems getting the Xcode project to work in the new version. I have a 13 hour flight to San Francisco this weekend so that should allow me enough time to sort it out!