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Skype Makes U.S. Retail Debut
JamesAlfaro wrote to mention a C|Net article discussing the U.S. retail debut of Skype. From the article: "More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide on Monday [the 21st] will begin offering the Skype Starter Kit, which includes the software that enables a customer to use Skype's free computer-to-computer telephone service, a headset and 30 minutes of Skype's premium service, with which a user can call a landline or cell phone, company executives said. The move is an attempt by Skype, the world's largest provider of voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to introduce its service to mainstream America."
Dear ./ editors,
in upcomming articles about Skype tell us (=the readers) that Skype was aquired by eBay.
It's important to know that Skype has the multi billion dollar backing of eBay. Whatever Skype tries out, they never will run out of money for the next years.
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
I initially had planned on using skype for my long distance. However I soon grew tired of being tied to the computer with a headset. While there are some ways to get a regular cordless phone to work with skype, all involve having a computer running. You can also purchase stand alone voip phones that are skype compatable for the small price of $200+.
I finally settled on buying a Sipura voip adapter and service from SIPphone. Setup was pretty easy and now instead of my $60 phone bill I have a $10 - $15 bill. After two months it paid for itself.
VoIP not only needs to catch up but also be open like email, and unlike the divided IM space.
Unfortunately Skype is not the application which connects to an open network.
Only applications like Gizmo http://www.gizmoproject.com/ and many other ones (which I don't use) connect to the International Standard-compliant Protocol known as SIP.
If you want voice chat (VoIP) on Linux then you have a good selection too (I don't know which are SIP compliant and which are not though):
http://www.phonegaim.com/
http://cockatoo.mozdev.org/
http://www.gizmoproject.com/
http://www.linphone.org/
http://www.wirlab.net/kphone/
http://www.minisip.org/
http://www.sflphone.org/
http://www.sipfoundry.org/
http://www.twinklephone.com/
http://www.openwengo.com/
http://yate.null.ro/
http://www.divmod.org/projects/shtoom
The kit includes "30 minutes of Skype's premium service"! One has to wonder how they can throw in something so valuable. I mean, SkypeOut currently charges, umm, 1.7 euro cent per minute for calls. So 30 minutes is a stunning 51 euro cents of value (~$0.65)!
Deals like this don't come along every day!
It's cheap and cheerful software on a CD, a few minutes of outgoing call time, and a headset. You're paying for convenience more than anything else - this is an ideal pack to get people started with who may not have a headset, or not fully understand if you tell them to "Go to skype.com, download it and register". The pack (In the UK at least) comes with a nice clear instruction leaflet for the whole procedure.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
Because throughout the United States there are just as many Radio Shacks as there are Starbucks: about 7,000 of each.
Stop invalid scientific research. Ask your local scientists to feed their lab rats with a phytoestrogen-free chow.
If the headsets are the same as those being given out at my student union, they're just this. I don't know about the quality.
The contrary seem to be the norm. Skype calls are quite good for most users from what I've heard and read and experienced myself. I use it frequently to call from Thailand to the U.S., both PC-to-PC and PC-to-land line. PC-to-PC with broadband on each end is very good, good sound quality and latency is noticable but not annoying. To land lines my calls are usually quite good - sometimes the call gets dropped and I have to call again. But quality and latency are pretty good.
Khao Yai Land
I agree with your sentiment. I am a US military member, stationed overseas. Phone cards here run about 11 cents per minute to the US, while Skype calls are the roughly-two-cents per minute rate. You can see the obvious savings.
In addition, I am aircrew on C-130s, so I travel throughout the Pacific. With Skype I don't need to deal with the hassle of local access numbers or phone cards that don't work in certain countries. Since I bring my laptop with me everywhere and high-speed internet access is prevalent in virtually every major metropolitan area, Skype works for me.
What I'm getting at here is that Skype, while probably not the best system from a purely technological perspective, is still a very good solution for some specific purposes, like mine. And let's face it. Joe Schmoe will not care about interoperability. He will care about cheap.