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Skype VoIP Software & Service Reviewed
securitas writes "The Atlantic Monthly's James Fallows reviews Skype VoIP software and the SkypeOut paid Internet telephony service in today's New York Times. Fallows almost raves about the software and service, writing, 'Skype, a made-up term that rhymes with "tripe," is the most popular and sexiest application of VoIP'. But he acknowledges that 'There is one huge drawback: Skype works best from a fully connected computer, which runs counter to the whole trend of ever more mobile communication.' Fallows interviewed Skype's CEO Niklas Zennstrom, who discussed company plans for 'partnerships with manufacturers of cellphones and personal digital assistants,' to address Skype's mobile limitations - it's currently restricted to Pocket PC. Fallows concludes with a provocative thought about Internet telephony when he writes, 'there are also questions about whether this new form of instant access could become as oppressively intrusive as e-mail often seems.' (Mirror at Taipei Times). Slashdot previously covered reviews of VoIP services Vonage, Packet8 and VoicePulse and profiled Skype."
there are also questions about whether this new form of instant access could become as oppressively intrusive as e-mail often seems
As intrusive as email? I consider email to be the least intrusive form of communication. Making a phone in my pocket ring no matter where I am in the world is the most intrusive way to communicate, if you ask me.
The biggest boom for this market will NOT be you calling your friends to gossip or talk about cars, it will be to have instant tech support or online help while shopping: you're sitting at your computer, looking at something, and needing help.
There are already online stores (Amazon.com, backcountrystore, etc.) that offer instant chat with a service rep-- it`s a very short hop, skip and a jump from there to being able to dial up at customer service rep. and verbally talk while getting help or confirming an order.
Things will get mean when this process goes the other way: once I buy a CD on Amazon, someone will call me on my VoIP to upsell or cross sell me on related titles...
davejenkins.com |
But in general (not zealots), the person using the software cares about the functionality and price. If something is free do most people care if it is open source? Have you modified your open source software today?
Fight Spammers!
"Skype works best from a fully connected computer, which runs counter to the whole trend of ever more mobile communication."
What kind of minimum system requirement is that? Could you list that on the side of a box and get away with it?
That's just it... I remember using both the products you mentioned while playing Duke Nukem 3D! Now that there are services to push the VOIP onto the PTS, this is where things get interesting. Especially for example, if Phildelphia has wireless all over the city. All of a sudden you can have a VOIP portable phone... very interesting idea. Start adding in things like GPS, Internet, VOIP onto a single small handheld. That is where things should be headed.
Consider for a moment how ridiculous that statement sounds to the hundreds of thousands of Slashdot readers who live outside the USA - especially in northern European countries where corruption by any measure is far beneath American levels.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
Given the rather narrow phone signal width,
shouldn't a really slow connection - say,
>= 33.6 kb/s - suffice? If not, why not?
The ones who wrote a great piece of software and sold it Sharman?
Or
Sharman networks, the assholes who ruined it by stuffing it chock full of spyware?
It looks like the former to me. YOu need to worry about the latter.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey