July 20, 2006
great, IM connectivity, except
I love this quote from the Live Messenger FAQ:
Does this work with all my Yahoo! contacts?Yes. As long as your friends have the beta version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, you’re set. When you add them to your contact list, they’ll get all the information they need to gear up and connect with you.
That's like saying "Can I call all my friends with this Nokia 7280 cell phone? Yes, as long your friends have the Nokia 7290 cell phone."
Please - trillian and GAIM, which both kinda suck for their own reasons have been interoperating for some time just fine. Miscrosoft and Yahoo, just make your base IM stuff interoperate. This shouldn't require a client download.
Windows Live Ideas – Product Page
Posted by Steve at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2006
Free SkypeOut to the US and Canada. Bitchin'.
wow, what a killer move by Skype. this will definitely get some people over the edge and gain some customers. i was actually thinking about switching over to Yahoo! Messenger for my voice calls for my next trip, but not now!
Free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within the US and Canada - Skype Blogs
Posted by Steve at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 11, 2006
VOIP on PSP and DS coming soon
cool idea, the issue of course is that both of these devices are single tasking, so you would have to totally back out of doing one thing to place or make a call...unlike a phone that interrupt a game when a call comes in. or am i wrong?
Sony PSP & Nintendo DS Mobile Phones at Gadget Spy
Posted by Steve at 09:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 20, 2006
Google Talk integrating with Asterisk
Joe, this bud's for you.
Skype has been really sucky lately. other options are starting to become appealing.
Networking Pipeline | Blog | GoogleTalk Gets a Facelift for Business
Technorati Tags: VOIP
Posted by Steve at 04:11 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
April 06, 2006
Why VOIP Needs Crypto [via Wired News]
articles like this get me excited about reading Wired again. call me paranoid, but i pretty much assume that if people want to eavesdrop on any of my conversations these days, whether it be voice, email, IM, or VOIP - it's certainly possible. very few files on disk are actually encrypted these days, and i certainly don't count on the network being encrypted either.
Wired News: Why VOIP Needs Crypto
Technorati Tags: VOIP
Posted by Steve at 01:41 PM | Comments (244) | TrackBack
April 05, 2006
iSkoot
this is cool - if you have a high end S60 phone and an unlimited data plan - iSkoot allows you to use your skypeout minutes to call skype contacts or anyone else via the IP network on your phone. i just tried it out, and although it takes longer to connect than a normal call, the call quality seemed to be right up there. Link below
Welcome to iSkoot
Technorati Tags: voip, skype, mobile
Posted by Steve at 04:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 12, 2006
skype VOIP has been sucking lately...anyone else agree?
This article in techworld indicates that Skype users are getting driven away. Is the network too saturated?
I use Skype a lot for both IM and VOIP, but I must say, the last few weeks, the VOIP call quality has been pretty, well, for lack of a better term, piss poor. This has been from various network connections in various places in the world. It used to be much more consistent for me.
Techworld.com - Skype figures don't add up
Technorati Tags: VOIP, Skype
Posted by Steve at 11:38 AM | Comments (1738) | TrackBack
June 02, 2005
more and more VOIP for me
more and more i am moving to using VOIP as my primary voice telephone technology. at home we've been using AT&T Callvantage, which once i figured out how to put it behind a router has worked wonderfully. it's great that i can get at my call logs from anywhere and listen to voicemails over the web or have them emailed to me. not to mention not having to pay SBC.
mostly though i've been using Skype, which is just a fantastic service for communicating on a global basis. all my scheduled calls between North America and Europe i now try to setup using skype which is both a VOIP client and an IM client. they also support calling out to landlines and (some) mobiles - and now have plans for incoming calls as well.
i bought this $20 Altec Lansing headset (only the best for me!) and it works great for this type of task.
it's also worth noting that most of the IM providers and Apple have PC-to-PC calling capabilities and will probably open up calling to standard telephone networks eventually.
So what do i use my mobile for then? well, i still use it as my primary number, for calls on the go, as well as most domestic calls. mostly however, i use my mobile for data.
i use it to read and respond to email, i use it to read feeds and blogs, and use it for IM and texting. i use it to read books. oh, yeah, and a few games.
Posted by Steve at 08:23 AM | Comments (647) | TrackBack