Reach out and Skype someone
01 May 2007 |
Interesting
Finds
You might imagine that being in California while my
wife and daughter stay in Utah holds the prospect of
an expensive summer of phone calls—I share the same
fear as well. Fortunately, computers come to the
rescue once again. Nothing like using a medium you
already pay for (the Internet) to avoid paying for
other services. The first hurdle is, while instant
messaging is an okay fallback, it kinda sucks
compared to real-time audio. Never fear, other
options are available.
I've found that for two Mac users, iChat performs quite well for audio. The developers have gone to a lot of effort to make it smart and robust. On the version I'm using with Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) the output from the speakers is filtered against the microphone, effectively avoiding feedback and echoing. Other apps haven't done nearly as well in my experience.
Sadly, the computer my wife has to use for work is a Dell, so iChat is a no-go. For situations such as this, Skype is a great option that has worked reasonably well for me—check it out if you haven't tried it yet. There are even options for obtaining a callable phone number and providing voicemail capabilities. I've experienced some issues of grainy audio, but on the whole it's a pretty decent setup. However, I'd be open to any other free, cross-platform solutions.
Having any kind of audio chat setup beats paying for calling cards all summer, and even though we still call back and forth sometimes, it sure helps reduce costs. Of course, things will be even nicer once my new MacBook Pro with a built-in iSight video camera arrives… I can hardly wait!
I've found that for two Mac users, iChat performs quite well for audio. The developers have gone to a lot of effort to make it smart and robust. On the version I'm using with Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) the output from the speakers is filtered against the microphone, effectively avoiding feedback and echoing. Other apps haven't done nearly as well in my experience.
Sadly, the computer my wife has to use for work is a Dell, so iChat is a no-go. For situations such as this, Skype is a great option that has worked reasonably well for me—check it out if you haven't tried it yet. There are even options for obtaining a callable phone number and providing voicemail capabilities. I've experienced some issues of grainy audio, but on the whole it's a pretty decent setup. However, I'd be open to any other free, cross-platform solutions.
Having any kind of audio chat setup beats paying for calling cards all summer, and even though we still call back and forth sometimes, it sure helps reduce costs. Of course, things will be even nicer once my new MacBook Pro with a built-in iSight video camera arrives… I can hardly wait!