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Vonage Makes Free Facebook Phone Call App
crimeandpunishment writes "Vonage has developed a new application for the iPhone and Android that provides free phone calls between Facebook users. Vonage's CEO says 'Essentially, we've given Facebook a voice.' Users sign in, see a list of Facebook friends who also have the app, and if they tap on a name a call is placed ... and it will go through even if the app isn't running on the friend's phone. The calling, which works over cellular broadband and Wi-Fi, doesn't use calling minutes but will use up data."
Vonage awesome! Facebook - not so!
'Essentially, we've given Facebook a voice.'
He then added, 'But it creeps us out how the only thing it says is "kill me... kill me... kill me..." all day long.'
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
sure, if you can actually FIND an unlimited "unlimited" data plan.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
So, now, if I get all the people I want to call on Facebook and get them to use this app, then we can call each other be buying the $10-15/mo unlimited data plan and buying 0 min/mo. Heck, it's a lot cheaper.
Which is precisely why you can't buy a plan that has no voice and only data. The ultra-cheap $15 data plan is in addition to the clusterf**k that is your monthly base price, plus the tons of fees added. Sure, you can get a broadband card, but try sticking one of those things in your shiny new iphone. Every phone operator, pretty much the world over, is a thieving a-hole.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
"Hello. This is automated announcement from Fraternityville. Your friend M-A-L-C-O-M-B request that you send him a one case of beer. The cost is 10 fratbucks. Authorize?"
Doctors warn that exposure to Facebook harms the brain.
That's all we need - people so used to Facebooks' 420 character limit making phone calls.
"Hi. I'm eating my lunch. Bye!" Click.
"I like that!" Click.
"Poke!" Click.
"Cool youtube video. Check out the link!" Click.
"I'm getting a pedicure. Pics." Click.
"I *so* hate my mom!" Click.
"Sorry, wrong number. I was trying to call farmville!" Click.
"Friend me!" Click.
"Why did you send me a friend request? Are you stalking me?" Click.
"Why didn't you send me a friend request?" Click.
"Hi. Just calling all my friends to make sure they don't miss me. Bye!" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"Why did you unfriend me?" Click.
"I'M COMING OVER WITH AN AX AND A SHOTGUN TO TEACH YOU A LESSON YOU ANTISOCIAL BITCH!!!" Click.
(Dials 911) "Hi, you have reached 9-1-1. Than you for friending us. If you need anything, just post it to facebook because that's all we do all day. Have a nice day! Bye!" Click.
I think most people are just afraid of the ridiculous overcharge fees. If it blocked access and required a phone call or tap to go over, limited would probably be a lot more popular.
If some can offer rollover minutes, maybe it is time for some to offer rollover gigabytes?
Grateful my car doesn't have a gas tank that resets to zero every week or month...
Corporations get to buy and sell pollution credits or depreciation in some cases. Maybe we should be able to buy, give, or sell each other extra bandwidth/minutes???
That you called it a 'universe' might answer your own question.
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red rum! red rum! red rum! red rum!
Hear hear. I wonder what goes through the head of these app writers. It's a choice of:
* Write for J2ME, and have a market of two billion Java phones, capturing near 100% of the market (basically everything except those phones that can't handle it, like dumb phones and Iphones). ... write for Iphone, and get a whopping 3% of the market.
* Write for Symbian and get the largest "smartphone" market share - the largest platform after J2ME.
* Write for Blackberry, and get the largest "smartphone" market share in the US.
* Or
At least they included Android, which has the point that it's growing fastest. But that can't be said for Apple, who are now fourth place, both in terms of actual sales, and the rate at which those sales are increasing ( http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1741954&cid=33130584 ) - and there's no excuse for Symbian and Blackberry to be ignored so often.
It's especially frustrating when public funded organisations like the BBC or UK Government only release Iphone apps. When they only supported Windows (e.g., BBC's Iplayer), there were uproars! And at least there they could say that Windows was the largest platform, with over 90% market share! But yet when they release only for the Iphone, covering just a few per cent of users, and one of the smaller platforms, apparently that's perfectly fine...
I don't know the Symbian SDK, but according to wiki it uses a non-standard version of C++.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS#Developing_on_Symbian_OS
Objective-C is a new language, but it isn't particularly difficult to learn. If you know object oriented programming it takes perhaps a week to learn and a little while longer to get used to. What takes longer is the SDK, but I think that's true of all platforms.
If you don't know how to spoof the MAC on a laptop, don't be reading news for nerds.