12:51 by FoxTwo Look out world! There's a new VOIP platform on the block - Gizmo Project.
Skype used to be number 1. Well technically it still is number 1, but I am predicting (I could be wrong) that Gizmo will overtake Skype soon. For one thing, it's cheaper to make outgoing calls to landline phones with Gizmo than with Skype. Thirdly, you get a SIP number when you sign up with Gizmo. SIP numbers are "Internet Telephone Numbers". You don't really have to have Gizmo to call a Gizmo user. You can use any other SIP provider/software to call too! So, you can use something like Pulver's Communicator to call a Gizmo user as long as you use the SIP number. Or, if you already have an account with a VOIP service provider, such as Vonage (in the US), you can use your SIP Phone (which COULD be a real telephone device that is plugged into the Internet) and call a Gizmo user (like me) using the SIP number and we can talk.
Secondly, when you sign up with Gizmo, you automatically get 25 cents (US dollars) credited into your account so you can start making calls out to landline phones. Now, how far does 25 cents go? Well, it's enough to make about an 8 minute-call to anyone else in Singapore. That includes mobile phones!
I have been skimming the Gizmo forum pages, and apparently, some people are saying that the call quality is better with Gizmo than with Skype. One of them says that he used to have "dropouts" with Skype but he doesn't get it with Gizmo. That sounds to me like Gizmo is technically more sound "under the hood" than Skype.
So, how can you go wrong with Gizmo? Well now that I have a SIP number I'm gonna leave Gizmo up all the time now, and start handing out my SIP number! I wonder how they can fit that into my name card at work? hah! We'll find out soon if everyone starts using Internet Phones.
Looking back at the history of Internet Phones, I am just blown away by how far we have come. From the early beginnings in the late 1990's, we had stuff like Vocaltec's Internet Phone, which was software-only, and you can only call other people using the Vocaltec product. Same goes for any other competitor back then - Intel Internet Phonie, Itelco's Internet Phone, etc etc. There was a period of time where Mediaring was damn popular in Singapore. Mediaring is still around, but they have branched out into the VOIP business today.
Then of course, there are those gaming voice software like Teamspeak, Ventrilo and Roger Wilco. I am constantly using Teamspeak when on raids in Everquest 2. You kind of "take it for granted" once you use it often enough. For the man in the street, being able to talk through your computer is still an amazing achievement to him. I know, because recently at the pub I regularly go to every week, I was just talking to the girl behind the bar and she was just asking me about some computer stuff (man it never changes. Every time I tell them I'm a computer geek I end up having to "solve" their computer problems at home) and I was just telling her that it is possible to just call her on the computer and we can talk while walking her through the problem solving steps, and she can save money on the mobile phone charges if we do it that way.
Her eyes went wide with amazement, and I realised that Internet Telephony is still a new concept to the layman. A few regular patrons who were near us overheard us and they too, were surprised that the computer can be used as a telephone. I had to politely point out that the Treo650 that one of them was using was a small computer and that the phone was "tacked on" to it. A Treo650 is actually a Palm unit, and a Palm is a small computer. It can do everything you can do on a real computer. Check out my Palm pages to read more.
So all you guys using things like the O2 or the XDA, yeah those are computers too, but you think of them as mobile phones. They are essentially COMPUTERS WITH PHONES tacked on to them.
Cool huh?
