MakeUseOf » international calls

How to Make Free Phone Calls to the US From Your iPad

Nancy Messieh — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:30:02 +0000

The portability of the iPad makes it a great communication device, whether it’s keeping up with your friends via chat, email, Twitter or Facebook. With the free iPad app, Whistle Phone, you can also turn your iPad into a telephone.

Your iPad is never going to replace your mobile phone, but for people who live outside of the US, Whistle Phone [iTunes link] gives you an easy, and best of all, free way to get your own US number allowing you to both make and receive calls. Whistle Phone’s service isn’t restricted to iPad users only. It is also available as a free download for iPhone users, as well as desktop versions for both Mac OS X users and Windows users.

When you first launch the app, you will be prompted to create an account, use an existing Whistle account or use a generic SIP account.

Signing up is quick with entering just your name, email address and password.

After you’ve logged in, you can select the area code of your choice. When first signing up, the common area code for the state of my choice was not available. That said, a few weeks later, I received an email notifying me that the area code was now available and I was able to change my number. Whistle permits users one free number change after signing up.

To make outbound phone calls, you have to listen to a 20 second recording, which is a tiny price to pay for free iPad calling. When it comes to receiving phone calls, anyone who calls your Whistle number will also hear a short message, saying “Please hold while I connect to your party.”

The app description states that push notifications should work, so that if the app is running in the background you should continue to receive phone calls. That said, testing with several inbound calls, we were unable to get push notifications to work at all.

Whistle not only allows you to make and receive phone calls for free, but with two lines in the app, you won’t miss any calls if you’re on the phone, and can even conference call with two friends.

The app also allows you to access your iPad/iPhone contacts list, or your computer address book, making it conveniently easy to call your contacts.

Other features you can use when you’re on the phone is place the caller on hold, and mute the mic, redial the latest number, and access a list of your most recent phone calls.

Whistle’s Follow Me feature allows you to easily connect Whistle to your other numbers – a feature only useful to US residents. With this feature, Whistle can automatically call up to 5 phone numbers if your Whistle phone is unavailable, or alternatively, you can forward your unanswered calls to a voicemail service. This, however, requires an in-app purchase in order to benefit from this feature.

It’s also worth mentioning that if you do not use Whistle for more than 4 weeks, your phone number will be reclaimed.

For the great service that it provides, the app is not without some glitches. Aside from the unreliable push notifications, in order to access the app’s settings, you are forced to log in every time. It would be nice to have an option to save your login settings if you’d rather not have to do this every time.

From there, you can add funds to your balance if you would like to make international phone calls, or enable ad-free calling to the US, as well as set up your Follow Me service.

The Mac version [Mac App Store link] is available for download from the Mac App store, and is almost identical to the iPad/iPhone version.

Have you used Whistle? What do you think of the service? Let us know in the comments.

Use Gmail To Make Free Phone Calls In Your Browser

Justin Pot — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:31:13 +0000

It’s been long rumoured, but it’s finally happening: Google is getting into the VOIP game. In typical Google fashion, however, you’ll find the service in your browser.

If you have a Gmail account you may already have access to the service. If so, all you need to do is install a single plugin (for Windows, Mac or Linux) and you’re ready to make free phones calls the US and Canada, plus cheap calls to other countries.

It’s all powered by Google Voice, the amazing phone service from Google that combines all of your phone numbers into one.

Find The Service

Fire up your Gmail account to get started. Enable chat, if you don’t usually keep it on. You’ll find chat in the left-hand bar, below your various labels. Once you’ve enabled chat, you should see a button like this:

Go ahead and click that to get started. You may be told to download the voice and video chat plugin for Gmail. Do so; it’s easy to do on Linux, Mac and Windows.

Once you’ve got your plugin installed, you’re ready to get started with the Gmail phone service, although you may need to restart your browser first.

Dial & Smile

Now all you need to do is dial a number to call it! If you’ve used Gmail’s voice chat function before everything should be familar to you. If not, it’s easy to get used to.

Are you already an avid user of Google Voice, or even just Google’s contact management system? You’ll be happy to note that your contacts are implemented in this service. Start typing someone’s name or number and they’ll quickly pop up, the same way your contacts do when you’re composing an email.

Naturally, you might have some troubles with call quality. Your computer might not have a microphone, for example, which would impact the quality of calls profoundly. Check out my guide on increasing your VOIP call quality for more information.

MakeUseOf testers also experienced a few dropped calls while attempting to use the service internationally. Still, it’s worth a shot!

Don’t Have It Yet?

You might not have access to the Gmail phone service yet, as Google is releasing it in waves (though most of my friends seem to have it.) You’ll have it soon enough, so don’t panic! It also isn’t quite integrated for Google Apps on Your Domain clients, though Google says it will be shortly.

If you live outside North America you can use this service; you need only to set your default language to “US English” in Gmail’s settings. You’ll have to pay to call people in your country however; only calls to North America are free.

Conclusion

It certainly is interesting to see Google Voice enter the VoIP market after years of speculation. Free calls anywhere in North America is even cheaper than my $30 per year Skype account, which I didn’t think anybody could ever beat. Naturally there are rumors that Google will start charging for the service within a few years, but I’m sure they’ll be competitive to Skype’s pricing.

I hope, however, that the service is never remotely similar to The Onion’s recent parody:

I doubt it will come to that, but it brings to mind a serious question: do you want Google involved in your phone life? Moreover, are you disappointed the service only offers free calls to the US and Canada, meaning users from other countries may have to pay to make local calls? Can you see yourself using this service, or will you stick with Skype or other alternatives? Let us know in the comments below!

Sipgate – 3 Reasons To Move Your Phone Service To The Cloud

Tim Lenahan — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:31:16 +0000

Today it is not unheard of to have your telephone service on the Internet. With today’s broadband offerings and the Internet companies getting into the telephony business, unlimited calling is almost the norm. In fact, I find it funny that back in the day (and still today) the telephone companies were the ones who got into the Internet game. Now the cable and Internet companies are in the telephony game. Hmm.

Anyhow, if you have a good Internet connection, you actually have some free or cheap options. One of those options that has been popular is Skype. I’m here to tell you that you ought to try out a service called Sipgate and I have a few reasons.

1. Make Calls From Your Computer (Even Via Google Voice)

With Sipgate, you can make calls from your computer. They give you a phone number (hopefully a local one) and you go from there. Incoming calls are free and that’s a clincher.

Outgoing calls are not free but very reasonable. Don’t worry though because apparently you can attach your Google Voice number and call out for free that way.

Check out this article walking you through the process but the idea is simple. Once you figure out how to attach the numbers, dial out from Google Voice which will ring your free Sipgate number, answer the call using your Sipgate number, and the phone will ring the person you are calling. It works the other way too (receive calls to your Google Voice number via your Sipgate phone). Such a cloud phone service is truly a marvel of free telephony.

2. Send & Receive Free Faxes

Working from home is good but since I don’t have a landline phone number, I have never invested in a fax machine. With Sipgate, that issue is done away with. I can send and receive free faxes all from my computer. In fact, having this ability also cuts down on the paper waste of junk faxes.

There are several options as to how to put together your faxes. You can design it like a cloud phone service or upload a PDF to fax. Oh, and you can also set faxes to be sent at whatever time you like.

It’s a win-win situation, if you ask me. And it’s free to boot.

3. Make It Work With Any Phone (Standard, VoIP, Or Computer)

Who wants to give up the old school landline phone they’ve been using all these years? Sipgate will work with that phone so don’t worry. In fact, Sipgate offers some flexibility in this area. You can use your old phone (with the appropriate converter), you can use a SIP phone, VoIP, or a soft phone. Or you can use your computer.

Sipgate doesn’t sell any of these soft, VoIP, or SIP phones but they do have a list of suggested phones for you. Aren’t they nice to do that?

Not only can you make and receive calls for free (if done right and you have an Internet connection), but you can also make and receive faxes for free and even help save the trees by cutting down on printed junk faxes.

What online cloud phone services do you use in order to save money on telephony? Do you have another service for sending and receiving free faxes? Please share in the comments.

A Head-to-Head VoIP Review: Skype Vs Gizmo

Ryan Dube — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:01:06 +0000

While I’ve never been one to jump on any technological bandwagon early (I resisted upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 for almost five years after Windows 95 came out), when it comes to VoIP I embraced the technology the moment it became viable.

Within just a few years of the advent of Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol, Skype emerged as a leader in the industry. The reason Skype became the leader was because, at least in the U.S., you could install Skype on your Internet-connected home PC and make completely free phone calls to any phone number in the U.S.

Today, the structure of the VoIP industry has evolved to meet the demands of increased infrastructure costs to support such a large VoIP user base, as well as to compete with the frightened but savvy telecommunications industry. In addition to becoming public enemy number one in the eyes of the big telecom companies, Skype also finds itself faced with a plethora of VoIP competitors. Today, we’re going to focus on one particular competitor – the emergence of an application called Gizmo. The following head-to-head VoIP review compares the features and costs of Skype Vs. Gizmo so that you can decide if Gizmo might be worth a try.

A Skype Vs. Gizmo Comparison Reveals Features and Flaws of Both

If you’ve used Skype, then understanding Gizmo is easy because it’s practically a perfect clone. In a few areas, the application is a bit too much like Skype, to be quite honest. With that said, there are some benefits to Gizmo that deserve mentioning, so this Skype vs. Gizmo feature will lay out those features side-by-side with Skype. At the end, we’ll review whether or not Gizmo has a chance of outpacing Skype in capturing VoIP customers.

This particular review is focused on the PC-based application, but it should be noted that each service, both Skype and Gizmo, offers a very useful application for your mobile phone that can save a great deal of money in both calling minutes and text messaging.

The first, basic part of any application to consider is the main page. In this respect, Gizmo has figured out how to make the navigation and control of the communication software much more clean and straightforward compared to Skype. In Skype, I’ve often spent a fair amount of time trying to remember how to get to the dialing pad or how to view message history.

In Gizmo, every major feature is clearly outlined in a tabular format at the top, and the most common actions, such as sending a text message to mobile users, adding a contact, or sending a message to other IM users, are clearly identified as large icons at the bottom.

Basic Features – Dialing Landlines and Adding Contacts

For the most part, if you do a Skype vs. Gizmo comparison on the dialing feature alone, they almost come neck and neck. Skype’s dialpad is a bit more aesthetically pleasing with blue stylized buttons with large white numbers on the keypad. Gizmo, on the other hand, features a somewhat boring, standard gray keypad with black letters.

But what it lacks in style, it makes up for with functionality by adding the ability to send various sound effects during your phone call. If you can picture how your friend would react when you click on the “BOO” button after they say something you disagree with, I’m sure you can imagine how funny some of these would be.

When it comes to adding a contact, Gizmo scores a point over Skype. As you can see below, Skype allows you to add other Skype users to your contact list. The one other IM app that Skype is integrated with is MySpaceIM. On the other hand, Gizmo offers users the ability to add contacts from GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN, AIM and other major IM networks.

The one thing any communications company should understand is that not all users are every going to be using the same applications, and expecting everyone to adopt your application isn’t realistic. Interoperability is a key element to success.

Advanced Features – Sending/Receiving SMS and Voice Conferencing

Once you start getting into the more advanced features, you’re more likely to discover fees or you may need to purchase the “pro” version of the application for it to work. Comparing Skype versus Gizmo on these terms reveals that in both cases the applications offer some very cool and useful features – but if you want it to work you’re going to need to be willing to pay some small fees of one form or another.

One of the most valuable features that I’ve found all of these VoIP applications have been adding over the past few years is the ability to send text messages to mobile users. While this is a feature that’s just sort of “neat” when you’re using it as a desktop application, when you consider that these applications have a mobile version, the value becomes much more clear. You can even disable text messaging on your mobile plan, and just use your Internet connection to send and receive SMS. Both services, Gizmo and Skype, offer this feature.

Another valuable feature is the ability to set up conference calls. In both cases, Skype and Gizmo allow this feature for free among their own users, but if you want to have a landline conference call, expect to pay for it in some way – either through the landline pricing or a fixed fee.

Conferences are easier to set up in Skype, where you simply add users or phone numbers (who you call out to first). In Gizmo you need to go through setting up a conference call number that everyone can connection to. This is an extra step in Gizmo, but it does create the convenience of everyone having a central number to call in to.

Another interesting and valuable option for both Gizmo and Skype is the option to have a voicemail box. In the case of Skype, the voicemail feature isn’t available unless you pay for the upgrade to Skype Pro. For Gizmo, the voicemail feature doesn’t make it clear whether there are any charges or fees applied, however the feature itself does appear enabled in the free version of the software.

Advanced Options and Configuration

Finally, each application has a whole series of screens where you can configure your PC audio and microphone settings, videocam options and all of the other specific features of the software.

This is the one area of the Gizmo software that really raised my eyebrows. If you look closely, you can see how Gizmo developers apparently just reverse-engineered the options menus and screens from Skype. This section of the Gizmo software makes it painfully obvious that, at least in this area, Gizmo is very much a clone of Skype’s application. With that said, the additional features that Gizmo offers beyond the Skype features make up for this – but not by much.

Ultimately, my own summation of this Skype vs. Gizmo comparison is that Gizmo simply does not offer enough additional free features or services to effectively compete with Skype.

Have you ever used any VoIP software other than Skype? Which ones are your favorites? Share your own opinion in the comments area below.

The Best Sites For Making International Telephone Calls

Charnita Fance — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:01:24 +0000

There are numerous sites and tools online that allow you to make free phone calls online but many of them do not allow you to make international calls. Most instant messaging services like Yahoo and Google Talk now come with an option to make PC-to-PC voice calls with your contacts although reception on these services are often unreliable.

So here are a few services to get you going and have you making international calls in a matter of minutes.

EvaPhone

EvaPhone, allows you to make free PC-to-phone calls anywhere in the world. There is nothing to download and there’s no sign up required. To get started you simply follow the link and enter the country and number that you want to call. Evaphone is definitely one of the easiest free phone tools available on the Net.

PokeTalk

PokeTalk provides totally free domestic and international calls to over 55 countries via your own phone. So, you will need your own phone number in order to use the service. Since PokeTalk is an ad-sponsored service, there are no fees whatsoever plus there is no download required.

A great feature that PokeTalk includes is the ability to connect to Facebook. When you make a call, an update with the country you dialed will be added to your Facebook profile. They also provide a widget that you can add to your website and will allow your visitors to make free calls from your site.

FreeRinger

FreeRinger allows you to make free calls to more than 30 countries worldwide. Calls are made from an easy to use widget right in your browser, so there are no downloads required. Also, you can receive calls from regular and Internet (SIP) phones.

FreeRinger also has an unique feature that allows you to have “speed dial hyperlinks”. Meaning you can save phone numbers as links and then bookmark them for easy access later.

YouTring

With YouTring you can make free PC-to-phone and free PC-to-PC calls. It’s not totally free but they do offer very low international calling plans. Their calling plans range from $25 – $100 and they claim that you’ll never have to worry about bad reception or interrupted calls.

In order to use the service, you will need to download a fairly small file to your computer.

Globe7

Globe7 also has a lot of unique features and is a great tool for those that like online entertainment. This handy tool can be used for more than just making free calls. With Globe 7 you can watch videos, play games, watch live TV, listen to live radio, send SMS messages, upload and share files, and so much more. To get started, you will need to download the program to your computer.

What’s also great about Globe7 is that it’s not only for Windows users, Mac and Linux users can enjoy it as well. Plus, there’s also a mobile version that’s free to download.

Flaphone

Flaphone is one of the most interesting web-based telephones I’ve come across; you can make and receive calls using the service. You will need to sign up but it’s very quick and easy.

Calls can be made straight from the website so, there’s no downloads required. If you prefer though, they do have an AIR application that you can also use from your desktop.

Flaphone allows you to not only make calls to SIP and regular phones but you can also call any Skype user. As an added bonus, you can also make video calls with Flaphone as well as use it as an instant messenger.

You will need Adobe Flash Player version 9 or higher in order to use the service.

Which online service do you use to make free international calls? Which service mentioned above do you plan on trying? Please let us know in the comments.