Luca F. gets into why businesses must factor click-to-call into their marketing plan to succeed online. I agree.

In fact, I think that click-to-call is turning into a must-have feature for the new VoIP  services and applications you see popping up everywhere.

I was just thinking about Hictu the other day and I went to have a look at it again. Next thing you know, Luca tells me that they’ve released a new version. Read more here.

I haven’t been using Hictu. There’s been just so many new tools to try. And that’s exactly the issue. In a nutshell, Hictu allows you to see the online presence of contacts on Skype, Gizmo, Abbeyphone, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, Sitophono, GTalk, AIM, Jabber. They call it a presence dashboard.

Don’t you get that feeling? Andy Abramson lists his six reasons why Cisco and Apple will play nicely together in the end. He’s probably right. Hey, maybe I hope he’s right…a  Linksys box that plays iTunes? Hmmmm. I think those execs must get a kick out of everyone getting in a lather over this.  

This caught my eye on the wire today. Montreal-based BabyTel is expanding into the US market. I first heard about them when I was compiling my list of Canadian VOIP providers. They say they’re different from the wake of other VOIP providers out there, offering not just competitive rates and plans but also “innovative” services and outstanding customer service, “something the so-called giants have trouble delivering”. (Wu-hoooo…wu-hoo-hoo).

They’re coming to the party with all the usual features of a VOIP service provider, but  they’re also offering fax-to-email and follow me services (when multiple devices ring at the same time). Sorry, that’s a little shy of the Wow! factor isn’t it?

If innovation is really on their mind, they should give PhoneGnome’s David Beckenmeyer a call, or at least heed his plea.

BabyTel does offer service in my area, though (Vancouver), which is great. Plus they’ve got a softphone option instead of adaptor. Maybe I’ll give ‘em a try. I’m interested to see what “responsive tech support” is really like.

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 I 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.

Well, I started Guide to all those Skype icon things…part 1, as a cheat sheet for myself. Here’s a few more.

Click the History tab to see:

 Outgoing calls

 Answered incoming calls

 Missed calls (unanswered incoming calls)

Chats

New voice messages (unplayed)

Voice messages (played)

 Transferred files

 SMS messages sent

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is that hovering your mouse over just about anything in the Skype window will display a tool tip (a little one-sentence definition or status report).

However, I found that almost right away I needed a cheat sheet for the online status icons, those green or gray clouds beside each contact. If you have anything to add or change, please do.

 Online: the person can receive calls or chats. If you set your status to , you can receive calls/chats from other Skypers. Depending on your privacy settings, you can receive calls from anyone, from people in your contact list, or from people who you’ve authorized to see your online details. To set privacy settings, go to Tools ->Options->Privacy.

 SkypeMe: the person is in SkypeMe mode, which means that everyone on Skype knows he/she is available and interested in talking or chatting, including contacts they don’t know. If you set your status to SkypeMe, you are allowing calls and chats with other Skypers who can find you by searching the Skype directory. To turn SkypeMe mode ON or OFF, go to File –> Change Online Status (Windows) or Account -> Change Status (Mac OS X).

 Invisible: the person appears to you as  offline, which means you can’t call or chat with them. If you set your status to invisible, you will appear as  to everyone else. Use invisible if you want to be able to make your own calls or chats, but don’t want to receive them. You’ll also be able to see the online status of everyone else in your contact list, even though you’ll appear to them to be offline.

 Away: the person temporarily can’t be reached–out to lunch, away from computer, in a meeting or whatever. If you set your status to Away, you are still notified of incoming calls or chats. Skype automatically switches your online status to Away if you have been inactive for a certain number of minutes. Go to Tools ->Options ->General to change this setting.

 Not available: the person can’t be reached. Sounds a bit more long term than Away. If you set your status to Not Available, you are still notified of incoming calls or chats. Skype automatically switches your online status to Not Available if you have been inactive for a certain number of minutes. Go to Tools ->Options ->General to change this setting.

 Do not disturb: the person doesn’t want to be bugged. Calls or messages are queued for you to check later. If you set your status to Do Not Disturb, you won’t be notified of incoming calls or chats (no pop-ups or ringtones).

 Not sharing: the person does not give you permission to see if he/she is online, offline, away, and so on. It’s probably nothing personal. When adding the contact you may have decided not to request their details, or they may have dismissed your request. To ask again if they’d like to share details, right-click the contact name and select Request Contact Details.

 Offline: the person is not available through Skype. They may have set their status to offline or invisible, or they may have logged off. If you set your status to Offline, you can’t make or receive calls/chats with other Skypers. But, if you have a voicemail account, people can leave you messages. You can also call forward your calls when offline to another number (either a regular number or Skype name), and you can still make SkypeOut calls (calls to regular numbers). 

 Skypeout contact: a person with a regular landline/mobile number. Not a Skype number.

Is VOIP a generational thing? When I told my parents about my great scheme to use VOIP for my business line and long distance calling, Mom gave me that worried look that says “Are you sure that’s not illegal?” You should try it, I cry! Vonage, my service of choice at the time, was only $19.95 a month. A simple calculation on my phone bill told me I was spending more that that on long distance every month, so it seemed a no brainer.

Then Dad says, why don’t you just use 10-10-YAK? Only 5 cents a minute.

That’s what my parents use. YAK is a dial-around service you can use for long distance calling. The charges appear on your regular phone bill so there’s no subscriber contract to deal with.

But Dad (I’m deflated now), YAK isn’t VOIP, and VOIP is COOL. VOIP is the WAVE of the FUTURE…OK well whatever.

Now I don’t know if it’s just my parents, but the idea of only paying for what they use on a regular old telephone makes total sense to them. Hooking up a Vonage phone adaptor to their PC and broadband modem to make phone calls does not.

But my Dad did get me thinking about this question of unlimited calling vs. pay as you go. If you ask the folks at SIPphone Gizmo Project, they’ll say that unlimited plans won’t save you money. Only paying for minutes you actually use will.

“A calling plan that involves unlimited calling is almost never in the best interests of the consumer. When you just pay for what you consume, you end up paying far less.”

It grieves me, but lets do the math. At 5 cents a minute, I would have to spend about 400 minutes calling long distance calls (6 1/2 hours) to break even with my $20 plus tax Vonage charges for unlimited calling. I spend way less than 400 minutes a month talking long distance, so (a) I was paying way to much at my telco before for long distance, and (b) I can do way better than Vonage.

Most VOIP long distance rates are around 2 cents a minute or less, so for me paying as I go makes sense (400 minutes at 2 cents/minute is $8)!

 

This morning I was down in our basement office pecking away. It’s a great spot to hide. I am effectively cut off from the what’s going on in the rest of the house (a blessing at times). Can’t hear a thing…no doorbell, kids pummeling each other, or the kettle… I guess my husband got tired of the kettle screeching away so he sent me a text message from the kitchen PC. "Hi…water boiling". Now that’s practical IM.

By now the VOIP world knows of Truphone’s victory in court over mobile giant T-Mobile. Yesterday, UK Truphone won an injunction against T-Mobile blocking calls to Truphone users: For the last month, anyone calling a Truphone number on T-Mobile network would hear a "Number not in service" message. By Monday, July 23, T-Mobile has been instructed to start routing these calls.

There’s plenty of cheering on the Truphone website, http://truphone.blogspot.com/2007/07/truphone-wins-court-injunction-against.html but I have yet to find T-Mobile’s official or unofficial response. I couldn’t find anything on their website. In the spirit of gathering the whole picture, let me know if you find a company statement or interview anywhere.