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Yak Launches Free Video and Voice Service
Jamie Garson writes to tell us Yahoo is reporting that Yak Communications has launched their new voice and video calling service, yakForFree. From the article: "In a crowded and competitive VoIP marketplace, yakForFree is distinguished by its free video capabilities and ease-of-use. By downloading the free Virtual VideoPhone, which takes less than a minute, users can make free calls over the Internet using a high-speed connection."
It is free because it's free. There are aparently upgardes available to allow calling to PTSN (land line phones). It is however very cool.
Or, maybe I am. I decided "Hm - let's check it out."
Fill out the form - done.
Click the link to download - OK.
They state "Mac/PC compatible"! That's good - I can do this on my Powerbook while I'm working on this code.
Except - the only link takes you to a Windows executable. Um - I think they're missing something.
That, and the site looks like it was designed by people who are REALLY HAPPY! WE'RE AWAKE, AND DAMN IT, WE'RE HAPPY TO SEE YOU. Wagh.
Calm down. Take the lesson from Google: Simple. Easy. Not 20 different links and no clue which one to look for. So, too weird - forget it.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Luckily there's also one free software "skype-like" VoIP in development - http://www.openwengo.com/ (GPL). For video features, there's always GnomeMeeting, though it's more for businesses than for the average Joe because there's no centralized "address book" except for Seconix. And Gaim 2.0 should support Google Talk protocol, together with some webcam support for various protocols.
If you want a free video phone that works great try SightSpeed. They have been consitantly ranked the best by PC Magazine and PC World.
Notice that the story is sent in by Jamie Garson, who has a yak.ca email address. The Yahoo story is a Business Wire press release. For a fee, Business Wire will distribute any press release and Yahoo will reprint it. There is no independent reporter involved here.
Video, no -- but check out BitWise [www.bitwisechat.com] which offers whiteboard and voip, and is for Windows, OS X, and Linux. I've tried it on my Linux box -- it's a very polished app and it works great.
Seriously, This requires a high-speed conection for one-on-one? Camfrog only requires a 56 k modem and is so good that deaf people can "speak" over video near-flawlessly over 56k. Plus it's loaded with more features, offers actual chat rooms you can go to and see loads of other people (up to 100 cams if you pay a one-time $50 for the pro version of Camfrog Client) in the room, PLUS stream music, PLUS type. Oh, not to mention IRC-style options like giving others ops, half-ops, make users have voice (friend of the room,) and on top of that all it comes with IM built-in. Yak doesn't compare, YET.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Unless you are charging your friends and family to use your teamspeak server, it's still free (as in beer).
This is clearly a free (and branded) version of eyeBeam from Xten (link) now known as CounterPath. Therefore my guess is that it's a service pretty similar to Free World Dialup (link) but with video (not sure if FWD support video).
Yes, it's called Gizmo Project. www.gizmoproject.com