Well, playing around with the tablet I think that I found the problem and a "work-around" solution. I hope this works for everybody:
Fist, an introductory conceptualization: smartphones usually have several "volumes", one for the voice call, one for the device (overall, which includes media players, etc.), and sometimes also one for notifications/alarms. Depending on the smartphone, phone/voice call volumes are sometimes controlled only with the volume buttons of the device (that's the case of my old Samsung Omnia II, for instance).
Why am I talking about smartphones if this is a thread about a tablet? Because Android ICS is an OS for both tablets AND smartphones and, for our dispair, regarding volume management, it has followed the smartphone logic.
So, our TF201 has "three" volumes (at least): one for media/general sound (whose icon is a "speaker"), one for notification/alarms (whose icon can be a little dialog balloon), and one for voice/phone calls (whose icon, I found out later, it's a little phone).
The problem is: (i) Skype uses for its call the "voice/phone volume", (ii) ICS doesn't have a voice/phone volume slider in its settings. The tablet comes with a default phone/voice call volume that you cannot edit using the general settings, and that's the volume that Skype uses.
Now, I found that simply using skype and playing with the volume buttons, I could notice that no matter how high or low I put the volume using the buttons, Skype calls remained always at the same volume. If I tapped in the settings options next to the volume slider that activates and appears in the screen when you use the volume buttons, two sliders appear, one with the speaker icon and one with the dialog balloon icon. That made me suspect that there ought to be another volume setting hiding somewhere (not in the general settings, however, which showed three sliders: speaker, dialog balloon, and a little clock -the alarm volume-).
I knew that skype was loud like a week ago, so that "hidden" voice/phone call volume had been modified by something/someone, probably an newly installed app. So I started playing around with several apps until I run into Google Voice.
Similarly to Skype, Google Voice general settings don't give control over the volume, the rely on the tablet volume management. However, I found that when you play a voicemail saved in Google Voice and, while playing it, you push the tablet's volume buttons, the slider that appears in the screen is one with the phone icon (namely, the voice/phone call volume!!). If you tap in the settings of that slider, then three sliders are shown: one for the phone/voice call (the little phone), one for the media sound (speaker), and one for notifications (the dialog balloon).
The phone/voice call volume was low, I set it in a high level, went back to Skype, tried an test call... et voilà! Skype was clear and loud.
So, again, the problem: (i) ISC has several volumes (so far, I found 4: voice/phone; general speaker; notifications; alarms) but its settings only let you control 3 (all but the voice/phone call); (ii) Skype uses the phone/voice call volume but it doesn't give you control over it (you play with the volume buttons, and can only edit the main/speaker volume and the notifications volume, not the voice/phone call one).
The solution that I found, so far, it's a work-around one: get an app that does give you control over the phone/voice call volume and set it up as loud/quiet as you like, and that would be the volume Skype uses. It's not a convenient solution when you want to set the volume up during a Skype call, but it's all what I got so far.
Google Voice can be that "work-around" solution (but, then, you have to sing up for a Google Voice account if you don't have any), but there might be others.
I hope that future Skype updates can "take over" the phone/voice call volume control (so we will be able to adjust it from Skype itself), and I also hope that future ICS updates also give the user control of that volume through the general settings!
is there anybody out there....
Posted from Google Ice Cream Sandwich
