Fring - my quick review of VoIP via cellphone handsets

OK, so I have been reading about Fring for a while. Every time I search for "Skype Symbian" to find out if there is any new information about when and if Skypebay will release a Symbian Series 60v3 version to allow me to take advantage of my unlimited data plan (in the Czech Republic) and wifi hotspots (when roaming), I get stories about Fring. So finally, I took the plunge, schlepped over to their website, signed up, downloaded and installed the fring-ware from the SMS link they sent me, put in my Skype settings, and voila! Now I'm using Skype from my mobile phone (Nokie E70) over free 3G connection. The default setting seems to be "keep data connection open all the time" which I imagine would drain a battery pretty fast, but you can turn off the "always on" feature.

Like Skype, Fring has their own echocall test feature so you can test that the call is working. My first test call was a toughie: Fring-3G-Skype-dialup_user_in_Armenia_with_thinkpad_speakerphone ... the end to end voice quality was pretty lousy as you might expect, however it did work; the conversation was halting and garbled, but possible. Next up, Skype across town to a broadband user with a headset- call quality was very good. I could hear perfectly, though the recipient of the call on the other end said that my voice sounded "metalic," i.e. tinny. Overall, a very satisfactory test experience via my free 3G connection.

Next I switched to my home WiFi network, setup the WEP key (thank goodness for the thumb keyboard on the E70), and tried a test call to the echocall number-- call quality was significantly lower than via 3G, but nonetheless understandable. Until Skype comes out with a native Symbian client, this is the way to go for free calls from your Symbian phone. Please let me know what you think.

Rebtel service quick review

Rebtel Rocks! Creative, cost effective, and easy international mobile-mobile calls (affiliate link)

OK, so a month ago I get a call from a friend who is living in Japan for 6 months. He was calling me in the Czech Republic via Rebtel and despite being halfway around the world (which amounts to a heapload of latency for our voice packets traversing the Internet), the voice quality was great. I then proceed to the Rebtel website, sign up with a $10 balance and start setting up numbers for people to call. Now I talk to my brother in Patagonia, Chile using Rebtel in addition to my parents in Virginia and my colleague in New York. All mobile-to-mobile for a few cents a minute. I'm diggin' it (and so is Rebtel since I've spent $7.65 in a month). I also am a huge fan of their $1 a week subscription fee (which they only charge you if you use the service in that week)- clever way to get $50 a year out of people without them thinking that they are getting gouged.

When I first read about this company on TechCrunch, it just seemed too complicated with all the mentions of call backs, etc. However, in reality it is not that bad since you save the custom numbers for the people you want to call in your phone contacts anyway. Given the viral nature of this service, look for it to snowball once it achieves some critical mass beyond the early adopter crowd. Funded to the tune of $20mm by Index and Benchmark, they should have the staying power to make it. Their business proposition is compelling, and I suspect they are looking creatively at the question of how to take on roaming charges... That is another *huge* opportunity that should be addressable by number pairing (but they'll have to come up with a better solution than my having to have -rebtel-FR -rebtel-UK -rebtel-DE entries for everyone in my phonebook...).

Please note that the headline link of this post contains my Rebtel affiliate ID as does the ad on the right. I encourage you to check it out...

(Music Video) The Epoxies - Everything Looks Beautiful On Video

OK, so the connection to gadgets and technology is a stretch for this one, but here is a catchy power pop tune with some retro TV footage and clever lyrics (plus its on YouTube). Check it out if you have 3 minutes and 5 seconds to spare...

SoonR: my impressions & quick review

SoonR: Skype via Mobile Phone and remote document access (via TechCrunch)
SoonR rocks! You sign up for an account, download the software "desktop agent," load it on your PC, and login. From then on (depending on what permissions you have given the SoonR agent), from any web browser you have access to Skype, documents on your hardrive, Google Desktop search, Outlook, etc. This includes the web browser on your mobile phone. When you "call" someone via SoonR, the SoonR agent tells Skype (which is running on your PC) to do a conference call, first dialing the mobile number that you setup as your number and then, once that is connected, then dialing the other user via Skype or SkypeOut depending on the number you choose.

Since the SkypeOut rates for calling mobile phones are not super cheap (around 23 cents a minute for calling my Czech mobile number), SoonR is not about to put mobile operators out of business, but it does provide a way of cutting international long distance bills via easy access to a Skype "line" on demand. As with Skype, you can call contacts you have already loaded into Skype or any PSTN number (via SkypeOut). It is also quite a party trick, for those of you who have friends impressed by such uber-geekness. Combine that with showing someone their house from the air using Google Local satellite maps on your mobile phone and you will have them in awe (and shock?) . . .hopefully you have an unlimited 3G data plan, because finding your way around Google Local Mobile is like crawling around in the dark.

Back to SoonR… the other cool feature and one that is very handy (though it does raise a whole slew of security issues) is the remote access to documents that are stored on your PC. I used SoonR this week to read a Word document while I was on the road. You select the document that you want to open and have the option to select how you want to view it—I wanted to see it as a text file (SoonR does the format translation on the fly), but there is also an option to view it as PDF (though I am not sure how that would work on my Symbian phone without Acrobat reader). Another super cool feature is that you can instruct SoonR to email the document to the email address of your choice, meaning that you can access desktop files from any browser in the world (it worked fast when I tried it).

Overall, this is a very nifty bit of wizardry, making the mobile phone platform with its limited text input capability a much more powerful tool. The latest beta version has been stable and working without problems since its release several days ago (the earlier version was a bit unstable). Even in its early form, I’d have to give SoonR a 10 out of 10 rating. Nice work!

anti-mega: Flickr off

Flickr photo uploading from Symbian- a review of the options from Chris Heathcote
This is a great overview of the options available for uploading photos to Flickr (and other photo sharing sites) from your Series 60 Symbian Phone (I have a Nokia 6680, but am looking out for the E70 when it is released in the "1st Quarter 2006").

I use ShoZu and I must say that it totally rocks. For free software (at least for now), it does everything I want it to, and since I am on a 3G network with an all-you-can-eat data plan, it is amazingly speedy. The fact that it is clever enough to recognize when you are roaming and automatically postpone the heavy uploading until you get back to your home network is pretty cool. If you have a S60 Symbian phone, go to ShoZu and get the software. You'll be glad you did. I give it a 9 out of 10 overall.

The Squeezebox from Slim Devices-- a thing of beauty

The Squeezebox from Slim Devices is a thing of beauty. It has a sleek, ipod-ish design that will be at home in a home stereo environment. I had been looking for a bridge from PC based music to my stereo—for a time, my iPod served this purpose, but it died recently. I heard about the Squeezebox from the Pandora blog, checked it out online, read the reviews, and ordered two Squeezeboxes that day.

The Squeezebox installation took a bit of fiddling because of my hex WEP WiFi key and bad firmware on my cheapo WiFi access point. I updated the firmware in my access point, turned off the DHCP server in the access point (which was conflicting with the DHCP server of my DSL router), and adjusted the positioning of the access point (walls in 100 year old apartment buildings in Europe are not conducive to WiFi signal strength) and the Squeezebox has been working like a charm. With connectors up the wazoo, the Squeezebox can connect via optical or coaxial digital connector to your stereo or via the old standby RCA jacks (which I use to connect to our little kitchen stereo unit).

I found the interface easy to navigate and was able to find music and play it right away. Great products should not need user manuals and the Squeezebox passes that test (at least for me). The remote control is functional and effective, however it is a bit 90’s looking and a tad clunky compared to the design of the Squeezebox itself—you would expect something a little sleeker (it is obviously a generic programmable off the shelf remote). My biggest beef with the Squeezebox is the remote control needs a “Browse Music” button that would take you directly to the browse function. There is a “Search” button, but that is not how I like to navigate music on the Squeezebox. For that matter, the Squeezbox firmware could allow an advanced user to “remap” the remote control buttons to their specific favorites.

One word of caution: my wife hates the Squeezebox. Hierarchical tree nested menu structures are not for everyone. With a little training or a diagram of the menu structure, I think we’ll be able to get past this stumbling block, but it will take some time. For her the CD paradigm and even the iPod click wheel were much more natural ways of navigating music. I think I will resort to a sticker on the back of the remote with a “quick guide” to Squeezebox navigation.

The access to Pandora via the Squeezebox is a great thing too. I like being able to setup custom radio stations from Pandora and listen to them in other places than at my desk. Overall, I give the Squeezebox a 9.7 out of 10. At $250 for the Ethernet only version or $300 for the Ethernet plus WiFi version, the Squeezebox is a must have gadget for a music fan who has invested the time to rip his or her CD collection. Buy one now.