At last, Skype has come up with a new version of their VoIP software that I actually want to download for reasons beyond the fact that it happens to be the latest. The Skype 4.1 beta sees the addition of screen sharing across Windows, Mac and Linux plus other trinkets like birthday reminders and a more in-depth contacts search.

Naturally, none of this costs any extra and, in case you’re worried about the privacy issue, it’s totally up to you whether you share the whole screen or just a part of it.

The birthday reminder is pretty self-explanatory – although interesting it does leave me wondering what kind of plans Skype’s cooking up for social network world domination – and the world’s favourite desktop VoIP app will now rootle through your Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL and LinkedIn profiles to find more contacts for you.

I’m downloading mine the minute I publish this. I suggest you do yours. Enjoy, and let me know what you make of it on the comments down there.

Skype 4.1 beta