Facebook unveils prettier interface, group chat and Skype video calling

Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg appeared today before the crowd of journalists summoned at the company’s Palo Alto headquarters to reveal new Facebook features designed to tackle the Google+ threat. He began by saying that the industry is quickly approaching an inflexion point where focus will be on apps rather than the number of registered users. Facebook has over 750 million users, he said. Facebook is hoping to zoom past the one billion mark in the near future, he said, predicting that the social networking industry at large will soon measure its user base in billions.

Skype 5.5 Beta Rolls in Facebook Contacts, Adds Facebook Chat

Windows: Skype's new beta for Windows now allows you to chat directly with Facebook friends and access your Facebook contacts. The app has a new Facebook Contacts tab that will bring up all of your Facebook friends, and allows you to see their online status and start a conversation with them.

Skype's not working right now, here's how to fix it

Popular telephony service Skype currently has some issues working properly and is more likely to crash than a rogue bumper car, but there's a little trick you can use to make it behave long enough for a few chats. Here's what you need to know.