This caught my eye today. AvantiMobile in the UK is marketing something called Least Cost Routing for mobile phones. When you make a call, the Avantimobile application in your phone checks to see if it can be routed cheaply through their VOIP network. If it can’t, the call goes through the regular cell network. You don’t have to do a thing except dial. It sounds simple and I like that.

Trying to absorb all my choices when it comes to new VOIP handsets, services and applications makes me feel like I need a flow chart just to make a call. Just look at Andy’s list of what he uses day to day!

I posted earlier about a two week wait for response from Skype. I didn’t think that was too bad at the time. But another blogger has been waiting for 6 weeks for support and his Skype account is unusable in the meantime.

What’s the deal? Skype is happy to take your money but if it doesn’t work for you, too bad?

Did you know that for the year 2006, “J” was the most popular letter of the alphabet? Okay, I made that up. I have no idea if it’s true, but three out of ten most popular baby names last year started with J….

I had a comment a few days ago from Eric C. wanting to know about Jaxtr, Jangl and JaJah. What’s the difference? What indeed! People (like me) are starting to ask questions like this because…who can remember what these guys do! They sort of sound alike, they’re in the same industry space, they appeal to the same type of folks. Eric then wanted to know how the Js relate to GrandCentral. Oiy!

Jaxtr:

• Provides a click-to-call widget (button) for social networking sites like MySpace, web sites, and blogs. Visitors to your page have the option to call you, send you a text message, or leave you a voice message. They don’t need a microphone or headset. They call you by entering their phone number in the widget, Jaxtr then provides a local number for them to dial.
• Free registration, then you buy jax credits to forward calls to your phone. 100 free credits per month.  You can send unlimited calls to voice mail for free and unlimited text messages for free. Calls to other Jaxtr users are also free.
• No software download required.
• Unique feature is Voiceblast. You can record your own message or greeting that’s played automatically or on mouse-click when a someone visits your web page. I’ve added my voiceblast to my About page here.
• Like Jangl, Jaxtr has privacy options that allow you and the person calling to hide your phone numbers or email addresses.
• Like GrandCentral, you can block incoming calls or forward calls based on caller ID. Unlike GrandCentral, Jaxtr does not give you a 10-digit phone number that can be dialed from any phone. People calling you are given a special 10-digit number they can use, but they must use the same phone every time. If they call from a different phone, Jaxtr provides a different number.
• I like it.

Jangl:

• Provides a click-to-call widget (let’s call this widget dialing) for social network sites, web sites and blogs that masks the incoming and outgoing numbers. It’s a way for people to make and receive calls without giving out phone numbers. I guess the advantage here is privacy. For example, you can post the Jangl widget on MySpace without revealing your personal phone number.
• When you register, you receive a Jangl ID that people use to call you. Someone enters your Jangl ID in the online widget, Jangl then gives them a special number to call you on a regular phone. Your number and the calling person’s number are never exchanged.
• Registration is free, then you pay per call based on telephone company charges.
• You can choose from several cool looking widgets
• Not really like GrandCentral at all, except in that they both have widget dialing (GrandCentral recently introduced web buttons).
• Sounds a lot like Jaxtr but I still found Jangl a bit confusing and not a lot of info or online support. I haven’t used it much.

JaJah

• Provides web-based dialing, or dialing from a web page, without a microphone or headset. All calls are made phone to phone, whether landline or mobile. This means the person you’re calling does not have to be connected to the internet.
• You log in to your Jajah account, enter your friend’s number, and click the CALL button. Your phone will ring, you pick up, then your friend’s phone will ring.
• No software download required.
• Other Jajah services and tools include conference calls, call scheduling, access to Jajah phone book from the web browser on your mobile phone, Jajah plugins for Google, Outlook, Mac OS X Address Book, Firefox, and Plaxo
• Registration is free, you get 5 minutes free calling anywhere, then you pay as you go. Calls to Jajah users are free.
• I have an account but haven’t used it.

I’ll leave TalkPlus, Talkster, and Talk-Now for another time….”Tango of the Ts” perhaps? 

Have you noticed that it’s raining mobile VOIP these days? Information Week asserts that VOIP has finally hit the mainstream wireless market and points to Fring, JaJah Mobile and Windows Mobile 6 as indicators who’ve all had new announcements this week. Truphone is also part of that crowd.

Tom Keating reviews Jajah Mobile on his blog. Check it out.

As a consumer, I’m happy there are options. But I’m also a consumer who’s not really ready. This mobile VOIP stuff means more decisions. What’s most important to me? Being in touch with my Skype contacts, my Google Talk buddies, my JaJah list or some other list somewhere? Do I like downloading an application to my phone or would I rather not–too finicky? Do I need multiple phone numbers for my cell phone? I like to use the Wi-Fi capability of my nifty Nokia N80i, but cruising around my usual haunts in town I’ve yet to find a free access point (obviously I need to get out more). The only place I’ve used mobile VOIP is from the comfort of my own desk.

Ted Wallingford got the scoop from Sightspeed’s Peter Csathy about their new and improved video mail feature. Faster, smoother, cooler. Gonna try it! 

Following on Peter Csathy’s post about how he uses SightSpeed for business and personal communication, Andy shares six tips for making video calls. In a nutshell, 1) Get over it, your hairdo’s not that bad 2) Get a hat, 3) Come as you are, be comfortable, 4) Have good lighting, 5) Learn to multitask on camera, 6) Don’t worry about multitasking on camera, it’s not considered rude.

Thanks Andy!

Nextfone is another Canadian VOIP provider to add to my VOIP for Canadians list.

At first glance, their offering looks similar to many others: two basic plans, a suite of free features, and a favorable comparison to other Canadian VOIP providers Bell and Vonage.

What I like: Western Canada area codes and an actual phone number for customer service/tech support.

What I’d like to see before I sign: more information on who they are and how long they’ve been in operation, up front information (BEFORE I’m in the sign up process) about the hardware purchase or rental.

One thing I wish for in my quest for perfect Internet phone service the ability is to fix voice quality problems on the fly or at least be able to understand “is it me or the network?”

When I had Vonage service, I usually started the converation with “So how do I sound, can you hear me?” Many times there was such a delay that practical converation was impossible. If I was at my computer, I’d try quitting applications to see if that helped (usually not). After hanging up in frustration, I’d try messing with the dreaded ”Bandwidth Saver” feature. But in my opinion, AFTER the call is way too late.

Is it possible to build intelligent applications that KNOW when they’re not performing optimally and can tell you what the problem is, or better yet advise how to fix it?

No sooner had I written this when Peter Csathy, CEO of SightSpeed, let me in on a little secret (okay well it’s not actually a secret…), SightSpeed detects when your video or voice call isn’t going so well and automatically makes adjustments to improve the quality.

For example, a video call that appears jumpy or out of sync with the audio could be caused by network congestion. SightSpeed can downsize the bandwidth usage for video so that at least the voice aspect of the call is preserved or improved. SightSpeed lets you know it’s doing this by popping up a dialog box that says it’s making these adjustments. I don’t know if you can you make adjustments yourself DURING a video call, but you can easily see your upload and download speeds while talking to someone.

To see SightSpeed statistics: 

With your mouse hovering over the SightSpeed title bar,  press CTRL + S (or right mouse-click followed by CTRL + S). A statistics dialog box appears showing your current, peak and average bandwidth usage.

Gizmo Project has a Call Quality Assistant (click the bar graph in the bottom left of the Gizmo Window) that gives you an idea of your network conditions. While it shows you at a glance the quality of your connection, it doesn’t say what you should do about it and at this point in my life, that’s what I need.

 

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.