The New Telephone Company
If you listen to some of the more popular podcasts like Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code", then you no doubt have heard the rants and raves about Skype - the next generation phone company. I have so far resisted the VoIP craze due to the technical limitations of what would make VoIP feasible for my needs. But I must admit, the constant jabbering about Skype has tweaked my curiosity to the point of having to finally install the damn thing.
So far, it looks like a pretty slick service. I have literally just installed it and have yet to make a call using the service, but something tells me this is going to be cool....WAY cool. I gave up on using MSN IM a long time ago since 98% of my friends use AIM. The other deciding factor was that I didn't want to be running a million IM clients and quite honestly, nothing matched the convenience and integration of iChat on my Mac.
I can probably say that I am about to make an exception to my rule. Skype not only allows you to call other Skype users, but via their optional (and incredibly inexpensive options), you can have an inbound phone # (up to 3) in the area code of your choice (though limited at the moment), as well as call outbound to any land line phone number. This has GOT to be driving the telco's insane. The one thing I see missing at the moment is toll-free options for phone #'s. I am sure that will come with time.
In addition to the insane pricing and options you get with Skype, you can also have a multi-party conference and can chat with other users just as you can with iChat. Another killer feature is the ability to send LARGE file xfers to your buddies without the connection crapping out as it does so many times through AIM. This gives a whole new meaning to P2P file sharing if you get my drift.
Overall, the benefits far outweigh any negative comments I have heard so far. As with any new technologies, there are going to be hiccups along the road to success. Even the almighty Apple Computer didn't get it right with the GM version of Tiger. It still has quite a few gremlins, especially in iChat AV with the video quality during multi-party video chats. I am sure that this service is going to get better by the minute over the coming year. I won't be able to give it 2 thumbs up until I have had a chance to really play with it, but I think we have a winner. If you want to test it out, give me a ring...you can find me under Frank Bisono (frankbisono) on the Skype user listings.
