I’ve had my Nokia N95 for a few weeks now and my husband and I have been fighting over it. I don’t consider myself a picky person, so I was surprised that some small external differences on the handset from the N80i made such a huge difference. I like this phone better. It’s thinner, has a comfortable feel in the hand, and the button ergonomics work better. On the N80 I frequently make mistakes using the center scroll/selection button. Not the case on the N95. Other reveiws of this phone also point to the larger screen. First, I thought, “come on, it’s a screen on a PHONE. A few pixels either way isn’t going to make a difference”. Well, wrong again.
 N80i (left), N95 (right)
 N95 (left), N80i (right)
As for what’s going on inside the N95, a big improvement from my point of view is the ease of setting up a Wi-Fi connection. It took me just a few minutes this time to get connected through my home network.
That’s it for my initial thoughts, more later on calling with GizmoProject and EQO. But if you need more, check out this podcast with three Nokia reviewers here.
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I just noticed that Andy Abramson’s got Sitofono (www.sitofono.com) on his blog now. Sitofono is a web-based toll free service that lets you put a “call us” button on your website or blog for a flat fee. Customers (or loyal fans) just click the button to call you free of charge. Calls can be made either with a microphone headset or a regular landline phone.
Judging by Andy’s earlier post, he’s probably got GrandCentral going on this number too so your call will be routed to wherever he is or to a unified voicemail box that keeps track of all your wonderful feedback. But wait, before that happens he’s letting iotum determine if he’s available, how he’s available (like on his mobile, phone, or instant messenger), and of course how important you are so he won’t miss your call. Wonder who’s doing the dishes? Â Â Â
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I was following the thread started by PhoneBoy and SightSpeed’s Peter Csathy about the obvious advantages of communicating with someone in person. Facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language are huge non-verbal cues that say a lot. But, when face time isn’t an option, then real-time video calling (using SightSpeed of course) is the next best thing. Peter himself runs his Berkeley-based team from San Diego, and couldn’t do so effectively without SightSpeed. PhoneBoy agrees and thinks that SightSpeed rocks, “Almost like being there”.
But, I’m curious to know if the folks who use SightSpeed today are making spontaneous or pre-planned calls. I confess that when I use it, it’s usually a planned thing. I’ll email or text someone and say, “OK to SightSpeed you now?”, or IÂ pre-arrange a call at a certain time.
My guess is that live video from the desktop is still so new that people hesitate at “surprising” someone with a video call. Unless of course you’re The SightSpeed Guy. You may want to check out his latest blog post. He’s wearing a tie. Must be the staff Christmas lunch.
TheVOIPGirl.com’s had another nice welcome from PhoneBoy (no, we’re not related), a prolific VOIP, telecom and technology blogger with an affable writing style. He explains things…
Check out his review of GotVoice and you’ll see what I mean. GotVoice is an interesting service that takes voicemail messages from different voicemail services (including VOIP ones) and sends them to your email inbox. You get convenient access to all your voice messages in one place. He also points out a few shortcomings of TheVoipGirl.com that I hasten to address. Thanks PhoneBoy!
Carolyn Schuk from Voxilla has an interesting post on TelTel, who she calls one of IP communications’ best kept secrets:
“With an estimated 2 million registered international users for its service, TelTel is probably one of the best-kept secrets in VoIP. By comparison, Jeff Pulver’s much better-known Free World Dialup, has some 600,000 users.”
Now, two million is a pretty big number so I thought I’d give the TelTel softphone a try (I’ll be honest and say I hadn’t heard of them unitl now).
I was pleasantly surprised by the packaging. The software has a nice look and feel to it and I think the installation and account setup really have the novice user in mind. For new users, the first tip of the day is a handy glossary of screen symbols. Unfortunately, there’s no way to find it again once you dismiss the window. Oh well….
Further exploration of the software revealed a few problems. I experienced delays and serious hang-time as I clicked various screen elements and links (such as Buy Credit, Help and the user forum of all things). Plus, when I tried to make a call, I got the add contact dialog box instead.Â
I’m also not sure what’s free about this service and what’s not. TelTel subscriber to subscriber calls are free, and TelTel to landline phones are subject to low calling rates (nothing new here), but what about TelTel to SIP phone numbers, or SIP phones to TelTel?
While the marketing message is that TelTel is Skype-like but SIP-driven, I’m going to stick with GizmoProject until this softphone lives up to its looks.
If you saw Andy’s tip for bad hair days, here’s a little additional info for the gals. Check out my video blog post: girl tips for video blogging on bad hair days.
Before you sign on to a VOIP service or plan, make sure that your broadband connection is up to snuff.
Voice Over IP (VOIP) needs a certain amount of bandwidth to be usable. Bandwidth is the amount of digital data that can be transmitted in a certain time period.
In general, an upload speed of 88 Kbps is recommended, although each VOIP service provider will have their own requirements.
You can test your current broadband Internet connection (provided through a cable or DSL service) using the free web tools. Here’s a couple to try:
A friend of mine recently asked about VOIP services in Canada. Like me, he started with Vonage but has decided to look elsewhere. We both live in Vancouver and want a local 604 number. I discovered that at this point, there aren’t a lot of options. Thus began a search for services that support Canadian area codes.
I found that Mark Evans, a Canadian technology blogger, has a nice list. I’ve added a few names to it here:
- Shaw Digital Phone: BC &Â Alberta (select areas)
- Rogers Home Phone: BC (select areas), Ontario, probably elsewhere but they make it hard to find out. You have to enter your postal code before they’ll tell you.
- Primus TalkBroadband: Canada-wide, select cities
- Vonage: Canada-wide and the only one I think that includes the adaptor for free
- Zingotel: BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec
- Bell DigitalVoice:Â Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton
- babyTEL: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
- Telehop Broadtalk: Ontario
- AOL Canada TotalTalk: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
- Cogeco: Ontario,Quebec
- SpectraVoice: Ontario, Quebec
- Videotron: Quebec
- unitz.ca: Canada-wide
- DigitalVoice: BC, Alberta
Added Sept. 25:
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Alec Saunders has a post today on keeping kids safe on the Internet. A new product called IMSafer allows parents to monitor unsafe or suspicious online messaging while still protecting kids’ privacy. Bravo! See http://www.imsafer.com/.
The subject of kid safety online brings me to Skype and their talk-to-a-stranger-anytime feature called Skype Me. Skype Me essentially disables your privacy settings so that anyone on Skype can call you or invite you to chat. I’ve only turned this feature on once to see what would happen. Yikes. No thanks. Frankly, I think it’s creepy. And after I disabled it, I went looking for the parental control command that would allow me to block this feature from being used. There doesn’t seem to be one.
Now I believe that parents have the responsiblity to supervise their children’s Internet time. It’s not the job of a corporation. However, Skype should consider building in kid safe features. For parents like me, it will make the difference if or where their product is installed in the home.Â
