skype icon wont appear in the task bar

Have you got other icons in the top bar for other running apps?
Have you dragged it to the Unity bar on the left?
What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy skype

Thanks

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux User-pc3 3.2.0-33-generic #52-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 18 16:29:15 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
skype:i386:
  Installed: 4.1.0.20-1
  Candidate: 4.1.0.20-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.1.0.20-1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Skype 4.1 is not in Ubuntu Software Center. You downloaded and installed from Skype's site. Correct ? (or from PPA).

Well , remove completely this version

~$ sudo apt-get remove --purge skype*

If you added a PPA , then remove the PPA as well.

Then enable the Partners Repo in Ubuntu

~$ gksudo software-properties-gtk

Go to "other software" and mark the "Canonical Partners" .

Then give in terminal

~$ sudo apt-get update
~$ sudo apt-get install skype

This similar answer as @Subin Huttons gave , but I want to confirm that new Skype 4.1 is not integrated correctly in up bar. I tested too.

Thanks

Thanks Subin Hutton, that solved my question.

I'm having the same issue. I tried NikTh's solution but after marking the "Canonical Partners" and doing an update I get:

W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise/partner amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise/partner i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages)

If I try to install from the Software Center it keeps showing version 4.1.0.20.

Found the answer here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1861843

For some reason (Unity, sigh...) Skype needs to be added to the whitelist.

Can you give the output of:

grep -R partner /etc/apt/*

Thanks

Skype version updated. Now is 4.1 . I received the update too.

For the duplicate sources , follow @andrew and give the results :-)

Thanks

This is the output of 'grep -R partner /etc/apt/*':

/etc/apt/sources.list:## 'partner' repository.
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
/etc/apt/sources.list:# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/precise-partner.list:deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner #Added by software-center
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/precise-partner.list.save:deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner #Added by software-center
/etc/apt/sources.list.save:## 'partner' repository.
/etc/apt/sources.list.save:# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
/etc/apt/sources.list.save:# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
grep: /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg: Permiso denegado

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/precise-partner.list.save
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.save
sudo rm sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/precise-partner.list
sudo apt-get update

Thank you Andrew , that solved the 'duplicate' issue in my sources.

Cheers.

PD: There's an extra 'sudo rm' in the 4th line.

Sorry, typo. Nice catch